Lately

     Over the past few weeks I've kept myself busy on various projects. However, I find that serving, is the best way to keep my mind focused on the bigger picture, and keep it off 'lil old me'. Conveniently, I  didn't have to look very far in order to find places in which to serve. As I transition into my next season, I am grateful that God allowed me to play a part, albeit a very small part, in the lives of these lovely people.

     School Leavers Opportunity Training (SLOT), is an NGO focused on giving young, disadvantaged people, the necessary skills in order to contribute to society as a whole. SLOT offers a holistic program addressing the pressing issues associated with the youth of South Africa, today. I was privileged to be a part of their spiritual side of things, where I gave a class on the Holy Spirit. I took the liberty of demonstrating the active power of the Holy Spirit and many were healed; from headaches to body aches! It was a great blessing and I know that for some of these young people, it was a life-changing experience. Yes people, God heals outside of church and even where there is no keyboard in the background!

The 60 young people I had the honour of ministering to at SLOT

   NCF church is expanding rapidly in the region and I happen to be related to the person in charge of all thirteen of the music bands, that make up this colossal effort. They have seven different sites (and counting) in one city, but due to the explosion of sites, there was a shortage of musicians. I put my hand up to help them out and had such a lot of fun. Seeing people encounter the living God during worship, is enough to inspire anyone to make the most of their life. It also made me realise more, that church is not about a building or a mission statement, it's not even about a band or a tattoo-bearing charismatic speaker (with a past), it's about Jesus; His love for us and our response to that love.

NCF Church - doing good stuff

Why do we do what we do?



 "Sunset at the Grand Canyon"                                                     Pic by Jordan Wegele



"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" - Ephesians 2:10

   What makes us make the decisions we make and what makes us take the actions we take? It’s not a new question, Paul even asked it in Romans 7. Some things we do are necessary to sustain life on earth, like eating, sleeping and paying taxes. But, these functional issues are not what define us as individuals; everyone on earth has these things in common.

   When broken down, it is often a difficult question to answer. For example: Why do I go to work? To earn money. Why do I earn money? To pay my bills and put food on the table. Why do I have so many bills? To sustain a lifestyle. Do I really need to maintain such a lifestyle? Not really, it’s pretty empty when all is said and done. So why do you even go to work? Why do you even get up? There must be more.

   There is always more. The example above is void of other variables, such as social responsibilities, family, friends and spiritual convictions. So, let’s factor these things in. I do what I do to be able to provide for my family; very noble. I do what I do to impress my friends; weak, but quite common. I do what I do, because that’s what’s expected of me. Once again, weak, but even more common than most are willing to admit. I do what I do because God told me to do it. Ok, now we’re onto something here. Admitting that there is something bigger than what can be seen and quantified, the benefits of which may not be immediate; is a good start.

   If, our motivation for doing the things that we do lies solely on earthly warrant, the results will be disappointing. The bottomless hole that is; pleasing others, living up to expectations and material gain, can only lead to a life filled with decisions and ensuing actions that have very short-lived benefits. You can never fully please other people, and even if you do, you will still not be pleased with yourself. You can also never have enough possessions; when is enough really enough? It’s a crooked line of swaying moral conviction.

   However, if work is a means to an end; a way of connecting with people, making money and using your talents and skills according to what God has spoken to your heart. Then your decisions and actions have eternal consequences, because they have an eternal source. If the underlying current of your decisions are not based on what you see in front of you, but rather on hearing from God and building His kingdom, then the reason you do the things you do, will not leave you hanging. In fact, it will motivate you more and more as you start reaping the harvest of God-inspired decisions and the value of selfless actions.

 "And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing" - 1 Corinthians 13:3

   Self-centeredness is the root of all grief. Just look at every unhappy person around you, look at yourself. Is the reason you do the things that you for your own (insecure) gain? Or is it for the benefit of others, the people God loves? The people He died for … Isn’t love, the reason we are here in the first place, a selfless love? So shouldn’t our decisions be based on this same God-kind-of-love? Why other people do the things they do, I can’t say; it's more than likely it's based on fear and blind ambition. But, I do know this, that love should be the reason why we do the things that we do. A love for God and a love for His people.

How do I really Know? #2

" ... for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."
 - Romans 14:17

    In the previous 'How do I really know?' post, I expanded on how
we really know if we are saved (born-again) or not. The conclusion we came to was that if we do not know the love of God and experience His love in and through us, then we probably are not truly saved.

    Love, still being the overriding factor, is also accompanied by two other factors, which if understood, could give you and even clearer indication of your spiritual status. These are: Peace and Joy. Love, peace and joy are the first fruits of the spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22. Once you are born-again and your spirit is made brand new, the fruits of the spirit are natural products of this renewed nature:

" But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control "
 - Galatians 5:22-23

    Peace can be defined as: the absence of strife or dissension. If you are born-again though, peace becomes the presence of a Person, the Holy Spirit. As a born-again believer your spirit and your mind should be free of constant uncertainty, worry or anxiety. This is only possible if we make room for the person of the Holy Spirit, in our hearts. We should have confidence in the decisions we are making and should not let that which is out of our control steal our peace. When we understand that pur salvation is not based on our works, but rather on our faith in Hisfinished work, then we will have peace in our hearts. Jesus even said in John 16:33 that, "... in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world"

    Joy, is an inward contentment, expressed as outward jubilation! When your spirit is at peace and is aware of the love of the Father towards you, it can't help but leap for joy. Joy is different to happiness, in that it is not an emotion, rather it is a reaction to the goodness of God! Joy gives us strength (Nehemiah 8:10), there is fullness of joy in His presence (Psalm 16:11) and there is joy on the day of our salvation (Psalm 57:12). If we can rejoice, even in the hard times, it is a good indication that we are convinced of the faith we have in Him! Jesus said this about His joy, "these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves" (John 17:13).

    So be encouraged, that as you experience the love of God, that you also have every right to experience His peace and joy! It is important for these three realities to work in tandem, in order for us to live out the purpose God has placed us on earth to fulfill.

"Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" 
- Romans 15:13

    My prayer is that by reading this and seeing what the word of God says about salvation and the born-again spirit inside of you, that you will be left under no illusions as to where you stand in your relationship with Him.

How Do I Really Know? #1

Picture by: Kirsti Pennels

   One of the most frequently asked questions I have come across in talking and ministering to people, is regarding their salvation: "How do I really know I'm saved?" This came as quite a shock to me, because some of these people I would have regarded as being 'strong' believers and yet they still struggled with this foundational issue.

   In contemplating this phenomenon, I started to see a common denominator, that is, in almost every case, these folks were extremely religious. What I mean by religious is, that they said and did all the right things, and were convinced that in the doing, they would earn acceptance from God. A works based faith. This is a very dangerous place to be, because even though many main streams of Christianity preach a version of this, it places the onus on your works, and not on faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, for your salvation.

   Let's see what the bible says we need to do to be saved and how we will know that we are, it's pretty simple:
In John 3:16, Jesus is talking to Nicodemus, explaining to him the new-birth experience, saying that "...whoever believes in Him (Jesus) shall not perish but have eternal life ... " The Apostle Paul reiterates this in Romans 10:9 when he writes, " That if you confess with your mouth "Jesus is Lord" and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved" Belief (or faith) is an issue of the heart, only God knows your heart and sees your faith, thus He is faithful, by grace, to save you and you automaticaly enter into His eternal blessing.

   Due to a severe lack of understanding of what happens when you get born-again, people tend to get disillusioned, because they feel as though nothing has changed and start to doubt whether, in fact, they were/are truly saved. In a nutshell, this is what happens when you put your faith in Jesus as your Lord and Saviour: a)Your sins are forgiven, past, present and future tense b) You are redeemed from every curse that came with the fall of man ,when sin entered the world, with Adam. These include poverty, sickness, disease and fear (all having their root in sin) c) You have the power of God inside of you to change your circumstances and those of others (2Peter 1:3) d) You have inherited eternal life with the Father (John15) (this is a hugely broad topic which deserves deeper exposition, future posts will deal with what happens when you get saved).

   So, realising what you can tap into, once you are born-again, will go a long way in making a reality of what has happened to you in the spirit. Remember you are made up of spirit, soul and body. When you get saved it is your spirit that is renewed, your soul and body remain pretty much the same, initialy. Thus, in the parable of the sower (Matt 13:18), Jesus explains exactly what happens when people start to doubt, He says "When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away that what was sown in his heart" This makes it very clear as to why people sometimes doubt their salvation, satan steals the truth and replaces it with confusion. There is only one way to counter this: " ... know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32)

   What is the truth then? The truth is that "Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God ... if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us" (1John 4:7-11) "If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God ... God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in Him" (1John 4:15-16)

Question: How do I know if I'm saved?
Answer: Love.

"The only thing that counts is faith, expressing itself through love" - Galatians 5:6

   If you love others the way God loves you, not because you have to, but because you want to, because you love them with His love. Because He is on the inside of you. Then there should be no doubt! (see 'Love, Life and Ministry' posts)

   Salvation is thus not a: fruit, works or performance based issue, it is a heart issue. A thankful (loving) heart will produce fruit and inevitably works (James 2:26), not the other way around. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is a gift of God - no by works, so that no man can boast" (Eph 2:8-9)

All scripture quoted from NIV (1984) with emphasis added

It's the Goodness ...

Photo by Kirsti Pennels

"Or do you despise the the riches of His goodness, forbearance (tolerance), and longsuffering (patience), not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?" - Romans 2:4 (emphasis added)

Some preach hell-fire and brimstone, others the wrath and the judgement of God and still other "preachers of the gospel" will hammer on what YOU need to do in order to inherit eternal life. The above mentioned scripture clearly indicates that it is the "goodness of God" that draws men unto Him.

If we are to continue as generations have done before us and try to scare people out of hell, instead of loving them into heaven, then we will have learnt nothing from their mistakes. Fear motivates to a certain extent, but as soon as the reason for the fear (hell) is forgotten, then there is no reason to have faith in a loving God, anymore. Love and acceptance are much stronger motivators: " There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment (torment)" (1 John 4:18 emphasis added)

In Psalm 103:5 the psalmist has his revelation of God's nature, "For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations" If our God declares Himself as being good, gracious, loving and faithful, why would we preach a gospel of condemnation that is contrary to His nature? I think the main problem is that not everyone, preachers included, see God as being all good. They have a warped view of His true nature, a nature that is revealed from the beginning through loving covenants, which culminated in Him sending His only Son to reconcile man to Him.

We can't afford to see God as the big-man-upstairs who is going to strike us down when we do something wrong. We owe it to ourselves and we owe it to the world to get a first hand revelation of who He is, by studying the Word and spending time in His presence. Then it will be the goodness of God that motivates us towards a victorious Christian life and our motivation for seeing the lost saved will take on a new dimension. Presenting a good and loving God to people will bring the world to it's knees, it will drive out all fear and it will bring hope to a generation holding on to the thinnest of threads.

Translations used: New King James and NIV (1984) with emphasis added

Love, Life and Ministry: A Love Confession

This is most probably the final installment in my Love, Life and Ministry series. Below is a compliation of my favourite love verses, from the bible. I have attempted to put them in a format that is easy to read and that has a logical flow. I hope you are blessed by this!

Photo by: Kirsti Pennels

A Love Confession:

Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies (Psalm 36:5), your love is better than life (Psalm 63:3), your love is ever before me, and I walk continually in your truth (Psalm 26:3). Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life (Psalm 23:6), because the LORD is good and his love endures forever (Psalm 100:5) and I trust in your unfailing love (Psalm 13:51). Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). It is by this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another (John 13:35). Likewise, greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13). But, God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) So, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? (Romans 8:35) For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:37-39) So, do everything in love (1 Corinthians 16:14) For Christ’s love compels us (2 Corinthians 5:14) and the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love (Galatians 5:6), so whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love (1 John 4:8). And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:13) and God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son (John 3:16)

Love, Life and Ministry: An illustration

As a continuation of Love, Life and Ministry theme, here is a story that my pastor read in church today. It is written by Philip Yancey and deeply touched me; putting into a modern context Jesus' parable of the prodigal son. We can all relate,iether on a spiritual or physical level, to this story.

“A young girl grows up on a cherry orchard just above Traverse City, Michigan. Her parents, a bit old-fashioned, tend to over-react to her nose ring, the music she listens to, and the length of her skirts. They ground her a few times, and she seethes inside. ‘I hate you!’ she screams at her father when he knocks on the door of her room after an argument, and that night she acts on a plan she has mentally rehearsed scores of times. She runs away.

She has visited Detroit only once before, on a bus trip with her church youth group to watch the Tigers play. Because newspapers in Traverse City report in lurid detail the gangs, the drugs, and the violence in downtown Detroit, she concludes that is probably the last place her parents will look for her. California, maybe, or Florida, but not Detroit.

Her second day there she meets a man who drives the biggest car she’s ever seen. He offers her a ride, buys her lunch, arranges a place for her to stay. He gives her some pills that make her feel better than she’s ever felt before. She was right all along, she decides: her parents were keeping her from all the fun.

The good life continues for a month, two months, a year. The man with the big car –she calls him ‘Boss’– teaches her a few things that men like. Since she’s underage, men pay a premium for her. She lives in a penthouse, and orders room service whenever she wants. Occasionally she thinks about the folks back home, but their lives now seem so boring and provincial that she can hardly believe she grew up there.

She has a brief scare when she sees her picture printed on the back of a milk carton with the headline “Have you seen this child?” But by now she has blond hair, and with all the makeup and body-piercing jewelry she wears, nobody would mistake her for a child. Besides, most of her friends are runaways, and nobody squeals in Detroit.

After a year the first sallow signs of illness appear, and it amazes her how fast the boss turns mean. “These days, we can’t mess around,” he growls, and before she knows it she’s out on the street without a penny to her name. She still turns a couple of tricks a night, but they don’t pay much, and all the money goes to support her habit. When winter blows in she finds herself sleeping on metal grates outside the big department stores. “Sleeping” is the wrong word – a teenage girl at night in downtown Detroit can never relax her guard. Dark bands circle her eyes. Her cough worsens.

One night as she lies awake listening for footsteps, all of a sudden everything about her life looks different. She no longer feels like a woman of the world. She feels like a little girl, lost in a cold and frightening city. She begins to whimper. Her pockets are empty and she’s hungry. She needs a fix. She pulls her legs tight underneath her and shivers under the newspapers she’s piled atop her coat. Something jolts a synapse of memory and a single image fills her mind: of May in Traverse City, when a million cherry trees bloom at once, with her golden retriever dashing through the rows and rows of blossomy trees in chase of a tennis ball.

God, why did I leave, she says to herself, and pain stabs at her heart. My dog back home eats better than I do now. She’s sobbing, and she knows in a flash that more than anything else in the world she wants to go home.

Three straight phone calls, three straight connections with the answering machine. She hangs up without leaving a message the first two times, but the third time she says, “Dad, Mom, it’s me. I was wondering about maybe coming home. I’m catching a bus up your way, and it’ll get there about midnight tomorrow. If you’re not there, well, I guess I’ll just stay on the bus until it hits Canada.”

It takes about seven hours for a bus to make all the stops between Detroit and Traverse City, and during that time she realizes the flaws in her plan. What if her parents are out of town and miss the message? Shouldn’t she have waited another day or so until she could talk to them? And even if they are home, they probably wrote her off as dead long ago. She should have given them some time to overcome the shock.

Her thoughts bounce back and forth between those worries and the speech she is preparing for her father. “Dad, I’m sorry. I know I was wrong. It’s not your fault; it’s all mine. Dad, can you forgive me?” She says the words over and over, her throat tightening even as she rehearses them. She hasn’t apologized to anyone in years.

The bus has been driving with lights on since Bay City. Tiny snowflakes hit the pavement rubbed worn by thousands of tires, and the asphalt steams. She’s forgotten how dark it gets at night out here. A deer darts across the road and the bus swerves. Every so often, a billboard. A sign posting the mileage to Traverse City Oh, God.

When the bus finally rolls into the station, its air brakes hissing in protest, the driver announces in a crackly voice over the microphone, “Fifteen minutes, folks. That’s all we have here.” Fifteen minutes to decide her life. She checks herself in a compact mirror, smooths her hair, and licks the lipstick off her teeth. She looks at the tobacco stains on her fingertips, and wonders if her parents will notice. If they’re there.

She walks into the terminal not knowing what to expect. Not one of the thousand scenes that have played out in her mind prepares her for what she sees. There, in the concrete-walls-and-plastic-chairs bus terminal in Traverse City, Michigan, stands a group of forty brothers and sisters and great-aunts and uncles and cousins and a grandmother and great-grandmother to boot. They’re all wearing goofy party hats and blowing noise-makers, and taped across the entire wall of the terminal is a computer-generated banner that reads “Welcome home!”

Out of the crowd of well-wishers breaks her dad. She stares out through the tears quivering in her eyes like hot mercury and begins the memorized speech, “Dad, I’m sorry. I know…”

He interrupts her. ‘Hush child. We’ve got no time for that. No time for apologies. You’ll be late for the party. A banquet’s waiting for you at home.’”

picture courtesy of homeaway.com

Love, life and ministry # 3

"But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd." - Matthew 9:36

The God kind of love is different to our love. Human love tends to be conditional, dependant on circumstances and perception. The God kind of love, agape love, is everything but conditional. It is unconditional, selfless, unafraid, patient, hopeful and enduring. But, most of all it is sacrificial: "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends" (John 15:13) Jesus was the ultimate demonstration of this God-kind-of-love, when He called us children (Romans 8:16) and layed down His life for us, as the perfect atoning sacrifice for our sins, forever! ( Hebrews 8:27)

Sometimes I wonder if it is at all possible to convey this agape love to other people, just as God has demonstrated it to me. I feel like I'm being a hypocrite (see previous post) and just paying lip-service to a concept that deserves action; that deserves my whole heart. In my musing, however, I realised that by being a born-again, spirit filled believer, I have everything pertaining to life and Godliness inside of me (2 Peter 1:3). This includes the God-kind-of-love, agape, that is just waiting to be unleashed on those around me.

Love must be a decision: we decide to love, not caring for any benefit that we may receive from it, but purely because He first loved us (Romans 5:8). The verse quoted in the beginning, is a picture of the world we live in. Most people walk around lost, lonely and directionless, they need a shepard, they need Jesus. It is the love that we demonstrate towards them, that will compel them towards a loving God, who wants to show them the enormity of the plan He has for their lives!

Faith without works is dead (James 2:17), but faith works through love (Galatians 5:22), so step out in faith and allow the love of God to work through you to reach out to those whom God loves and died for!

All scripture quoted from NKJV; emphasis added. Picture courtesy of shinybinary.com

Love, Life and Ministry: # 2

Ministering from the Heart

"... let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." - 1 John 4:7-8 (NKJV)


      Have you ever felt like a hypocrite? Like you don't feel worthy or good enough to tell people about Jesus? If you say yes, then I would estimate that you are in the same boat as the majority of people who call themselves Christians. What has this got to do with love? Well, everything in fact, because love is an issue of the heart and so is hypocrisy. You see, one of the broad definitions of a hypocrite is someone who does something, but with the wrong motives. So how do we minister out of the right motives then?
 
     I was out ministering on the streets of our city last week. It was night time and well below freezing, it was cold! My little group of fearless evangelists stumbled upon a couple, sitting in the doorway of a shop. The woman was five months pregnant and the man had all their belongings stuffed into a duffel bag. We decided to stop and listen to their story. As it turned out, they had nowhere to go, no money, no food and no hope. So we decided to pray with them, encourage them and we were able to help them out with some money, for a room for the night.

Others

     The reason I bring this story up, is because it is a classic case of what most people would call 'ministry'. God is love, right? Right!(1 John 4:16) And we have God inside of us, right? Right! (1 John 4:15) So in fact, us loving those people, that night on the street, was really God loving them. We were an extension of Him, we bought His kingdom down onto that side-walk, on that cold winters night, just because we had the love of God inside of us. This is the same for anything you do, with the right heart, you are extending His kingdom and breaking down spiritual barriers with love!



pic courtesy of gsmfiles

Me (You)

    An insight God gave me a while back on love, has really helped to put His love for me into perspective. When we understand His love for us, it is easy minister to others out of love: If you were the only person alive on the earth, Jesus would have still died for you! This is massive. That is how much He loves you and me, as individuals, John 3:16 confirms this, when it says that "... God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son ..."

     Try and imagine an enormous bucket. Now fill it with God's love for you and slowly tip it over your head. Feels good, doesn't it! But wait, this bucket never runs out, it just keeps pouring the love of the Father over you! This is the reality, believe it, it's true!

Love, Life and Ministry # 1

Picture Courtesy of Lea vd Heever

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing." - 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (NKJV)

The above scripture puts into context what the motivating factor in our lives should be. The motivation for interacting with people, ministry, doing good deeds and sacrificing yourself for a cause: should all be motivated by love. So often we do good things with questionable motives, we start off with the right intentions, but end up trying to draw attention to ourselves, or at least, away from God.

You see, when you do anything out of love, it is a direct reflection of the Father Himself, because God is love (1John 4:8). We often claim to have Jesus as our first love, but do our fruits portray this? I am not out to condemn anyone, but let's be honest, if more Christians had a revelation of how much God loves them, then they would be able to give that very same love away, to a world that is in such desperate need of it! Jesus said, that it is by this (love) that all men will know that you are my disciples, that you "have love for one another" (John 13:35)

Friends, if you don't yet experience or even have a knowledge of the love that God has for you, then how will you ever be able to share His love? The greatest revelation that any believer may ever get in their walk with God is how much He loves you. It will revolutionize the way you go about doing life and ministry, because it is no longer an aimless pursuit from one religious deed to the next, in fact it becomes a pursuit of more love, which is more God, to be able to give more of it away!

This post has, hopefully, whet your appetite to find out more about how much God loves you and that it is not just a cliched phrase that Christians have killed over the years. Rather, it is a tangible reality of the security in knowing that there is nothing we can do to make God love us more or less, when we are in Him. The following posts will expand further and go deeper into what the bible says about God's love for the world and how we can tap into it and be part of it!

#3 Discipleship Under Grace: An Outline

Characteristics of a disciple

Bear fruit

“This is to my Fathers glory, that you bear much fruit showing yourself to be my disciples” John 15:8.
It is no effort for an apple tree to produce apples, nor an orange tree to produce oranges. The same is true for someone who is born again. Your spirit is made new and righteous according to 2 Corinthians 5:10 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come” Our new nature is thus one that is no longer after the fleshly things, but after the spiritual things, because our spirit is totally renewed and made alive to Gods potential in us. The fruit that we bear will thus be a natural result of this act of faith and not something we do in order to attain it.

Fruit may come in the form of the fruit of the spirit, as found in Galatians 5:22-23. It may come in the form of gifts flowing through you, such as prophecy, healing, miracles, tongues, interpretation of tongues, words of wisdom and words of knowledge as set out in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10.

All of the above are unlikely occurrences in someone who has just recited a prayer at the back of the auditorium, there are exceptions of course, but history shows that people who bear much fruit are those who have been mentored into and taught how to best manifest Gods power through them. They have been taught on how the principles of healing work; they have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and have been guided through the bible into an understanding of what they are going through.

Remember: The goal is not fruit. The goal is a changing of the heart and a renewing of the mind. Fruit will be a natural and exciting product of these two elements combining in the life of any believer.


Multiplication

Acts 6:1 “And in those days when the number of disciples was multiplied…” Acts 6:7 “The word of God increased; and the number of disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly …”


Another characteristic of a disciple is multiplication. The pattern in the book of Acts gives us a good idea of what it meant to be a disciple – the disciples of the day preached the good news of Jesus Christ and the reality of this good news meant that more people joined them and their numbers increased!

Our aim is for every tribe, nation and tongue to hear and receive the gospel. It is to raise up leaders, who can carry on with the good works in the absence of the initiator. Success is largely dependant on whether there are successors or not. Discipleship thus ensures the sustainability of a particular work of God in a given environment.

Multiplication is thus a spin-off of effective discipleship and equipping. Disciples in the book of Acts did life together. They ate, lived and worshiped together. This meant that they gleaned off each other by learning from each others mistakes and profiting from each others wisdom, causing them to be encouraged in replicating these insights in other people.

Multiplication can thus also be seen as a fruit of effective discipleship in a believer. But, it is once again not the results we must focus on. The result of multiplication is only an indicator of a change of heart in individuals, through the Holy Spirit.

Freedom

John 8:31 “To the Jews who had believed in Him, Jesus said,” If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free”

In this verse Jesus paints a picture of progressing into being a disciple and what the end result will be. First, you have to believe in Him. This is a prerequisite to being a disciple; you must first be a believer – believe it or not!

Secondly, He said that “if you hold to my teaching” (NIV) or “abide in My word” (Amp), only then are you really His disciples. This then puts a clear separation between a believer and a disciple. A believer believes in his heart and confesses with his mouth (Romans 10:9-10), whereas a disciple holds to the teachings of Christ, which broadly entail: To love the Lord you God with all your might and to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39).Something which most Christians today still struggle with and thus a watershed that can separate the strong in the faith from the not so strong.

The third step in the progression is to “know the truth”. Knowing the truth does not come merely from hearing, being exposed to or aligning oneself with the truth. ‘Knowing’, comes from embracing, engaging and meditating on the truth. It comes by the Holy Spirit opening up your eyes to the various truths contained in the scriptures, which reveal Jesus as the way the Truth and the life (John 14:6).

Lastly, having an intimate knowledge of Jesus, through relationship and revelation, ultimately brings freedom. Freedom from condemnation (Romans 8:1), freedom from sin (Romans 6:22), freedom to embrace, fully, all God has for you in Christ Jesus, in order to be an effective witness to a lost and dying world!

Living a life of freedom and liberty is the life Jesus intended for each one of us and one which marks a true disciple. “Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. "Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Corinthians 3:16-17 NKJV)

Within every believer the Spirit of the Lord rests and when this Spirit is activated by faith, then freedom reigns in and through us and the fruits of the Spirit will abound.

Love

John 13:35 “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another”

The discipleship relationship rises and falls on the love one has for the person you are discipling. We are representing Jesus, who embodied love. God is love and we are His ambassadors (1 John 4:8).

Love is also an indicator of maturity. Maturity comes with the taking up of responsibility and the ultimate form of responsibility is to love your neighbor as yourself.

If we don’t share God’s love with others, then the chances are that they will not see God as a loving God. They will in turn, not disciple people into God’s love, but rather into a callous, regimented religion, that is a far cry from God’s intended plan.

This love is mostly seen as the agape or brotherly love, which we show towards one another and co notates affection. Another form of love is the phileo love, which represents tender affection and showing signs of love.

Love is the trademark of a disciple: “He who does not love (show good will towards) his brother abides in death” (1 John 3:14 NKJV emphasis added)

Love is a fruit of the revelation of God’s unmerited favor towards you through the sacrifice of the one man Jesus Christ: “But God demonstrated His own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 NKJV).

If we do not act in love then we act in vein. We are building our own kingdoms instead of the kingdom of God and will end up hurt, when rejection or non conformance is shown by the people who we have come to care for. This is unhealthy. We must, therefore, examine our motives and check our hearts, because if love isn’t the motivator, then it is probably power you are after.

Hardships

“You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ”( 2 Timothy 2:3 NKJV).
After Paul has spoken to Timothy about teaching others in the way he himself was taught (see introduction), he then goes on to mention that it won’t come without hardships.

The Amplified bible says it as the “hardships and sufferings which you are called to endure”. Thus, with the calling of being a true follower, student or disciple of Jesus, there will be hardships and suffering along the way. In fact, if you don’t bump into the devil somewhere along the way, it means you are going in the same direction!

The disciples and apostles in the days of the Acts church endured endless hardship and strife. In fact Paul lists the problems he went through: Beatings, imprisonments, riots, hard work, sleepless nights, hunger, persecution and being falsely accused (2 Corinthians 6)

It is not God who brings these hardships upon you; they are the attack of the enemy upon the calling and the destiny that is placed on the life of every believer. Hardships should be a sign to every believer that they are treading on enemy territory; they should be counted on as pure joy (James 1:2) and should prove to strengthen your resolve and forge your character as a true disciple.

2 Timothy 3:12 “Yes, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” It is therefore quite safe to say that a good trade mark of a disciple is one who endure hardships from time- to – time, but an even better mark is one that comes out the other side stronger and praising God for the opportunity to learn through circumstances. “He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us…” (2 Corinthians 1:10 NIV)

Go will always deliver us out of the darkest situation. It is often such situations that turn believers into disciples, as it brings them to a realization that they need God so much more and that there is so much more of Him to need.

Mission Argentina continued

The city of Lujan provided it's own unique challenges, but it also came with it's own unique opportunities! One of our main ministry focuses was with children, during the afternoons. The church we were working with had a school attached to it and so many of the children from the school would join us for afternoon activities. We averaged around 40 children every afternoon and I think they blessed us more than we could ever have blessed them. We would play games with them, do crafts, read them stories and pray with and for them! 



Some of the children in our afternoon program (Wegele)



Their hearts were open to the gospel and many of them dedicated their hearts to Christ and received His love with openness. Children are usually a good representation of what the situation is like at home, and we had a mixed bag. But one thing is for sure, that God's love and compassion for children stretches beyond any domestic situation, their faith is so pure and trust so sure that there is always hope for even the worst case!

Another adventure that our time in Lujan provided for was street evangelism. We broke up into groups of three or for, with an interpreter, and went about handing out fliers for the evening services and ministering and praying for people. An amazing statistic was that over ninety - percent  of the people we offered to pray for wanted prayer and allowed us to minister and prophesy over them - the soil was ready! 



One particular lady our group came across on the street, had just come from the doctor. She had just been diagnosed with clinical depression, complicated further by heart problems. When we started praying for her she had a severe headache as well (probably from the terrible diagnosis). As we started praying for her physical ailments her headache let up and she began to relax, sensing that her heart was beating properly again. However, it was when she accepted Jesus into her life, that a smile returned to her face. She seemed overjoyed that she was no longer carrying her burden alone and that someone actually loved her and cared for her.



The lady who got saved and offered us money! (Wegele)



 I am sometimes sceptical about the sincerity and honesty of healings and salvations, especially when working through translators, due largely to my previous experiences in China. So it wasn't until, out of great excitement, this lady started offering us money for the gift of life she had just received, that I was certain, even her depression had fled at the name of Jesus! Needless to say we didn't take  her money, but she made her point, she was changed!  

It takes more faith for someone to believe that their sins are forgiven and get born-again, than it does to receive a simple healing. I thus emphasise the salvations on this trip, not to puff up our accomplishments, but so that we can rejoice together that people are coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus everyday and we will see them again in eternity!

I hope these posts excite you as they do me, I hope you are encouraged to step out in faith in your environment and put God's word to the test, it hasn't failed yet! Remember He never sends the equipped, but He equips the sent ...

Look out for more pictures, videos and posts from Argentina and other great things happening all over!



The Basilica de Lujan (Wikipedia)