Back to the roots!

Glory to God!

Yesterday's meeting was awesome as the Lord revealed His holiness to us and drew every one of us to our knees in worship of, and surrender to Him. God is continuing to prepare us, purify us, and sanctify us for His purposes and His glory! Hallelujah!

As the Lord continues to teach us about the identity, the purpose and the goal of the Church, and how authority links all three as we live in covenant with God and one another, He is taking us back to the roots. Looking at Acts 2:42-47 the Lord showed us the following:

1. Christ's Church is made up of a people who are devoted.

• A devoted people are a people set apart to be unconditionally and continuously committed to God and one another.

2. The Church is to be devoted to the apostle's teaching by submitting to the authority of spiritual leadership and the teaching of God's Word.

• God's Word must be received in the spirit by a people who have a teachable spirit and do not listen subjectively - only then can we discern truth spiritually and allow God's Word to do its work in us.
• The Bereans received the Word first and then they examined the Word. Acts 17:11

3. The Church is to be devoted to the fellowship.

• True fellowship (Koinonia) is not only a physical gathering but also communion in soul and spirit.
• True fellowship in the Church is a reflection of the same fellowship the Father has with the Son. John 17:20-23; 1 John 1:3
• The Church is to be a fellowship of the Holy Spirit. 2 Cor. 13:14

4. The Church is to be devoted to the breaking of bread together.

• The breaking of bread is communion - sharing the Lord's supper.
• Communion proclaims the reality of Christ's death that has set us free from the power of the enemy - providing salvation, healing and deliverance for those who believe.
• Communion establishes the new covenant in Jesus' blood and our unity in the Spirit with God and with one another. 1 Cor.11:23-26

A devoted people are a people set apart to be unconditionally and continuously committed to God and to one another

We praise God for an awesome 2008 and we are looking forward to 2009 - a year of breakthrough and fruitfulness! Hallelujah!

Quote of the week:

"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles." Acts 2:42,43

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Sharing Destiny

Glory to God!

Yesterday was awesome as we met together in the afternoon as well as in the evening to celebrate Christmas with the poor and needy. The children and the youth prepared and performed a powerful drama to emphasise the true meaning of Christ's birth and the power of the Cross. In the afternoon they performed the drama in English and in the evening they performed it in German at the Christmas celebration for the needy. You can see pictures of both meetings here!

We praise God for His hand upon us and for where He is taking us together! Yesterday the Lord spoke to us about His covenant with us and our covenant with Him and one another. He showed us that it has always been His will to bring honour to His name in every generation and that we are called to do the same in this generation as we covenant with God and one another, forming deep-spirited relationships and sharing our destiny together. For more information on covenant membership look here: what%20is%20covenant%20membership.doc

In the evening we celebrated Christmas together with the poor and needy as we met in a local hall and provided a delicious meal for the people that was catered by the NH hotel group. Apart from receiving plenty of food, we also worshipped together and the people also received the Word through preaching and the drama performed by our KLF children and youth. We praise God for the many people that came (almost double compared to last year!) and that we were able to provide everyone with enough to eat. Hallelujah!

Quote of the week:

"The king is enthralled by your beauty; honour him, for he is your lord."

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The Key to the Kingdom

Praise be to God Almighty!

The Lord is preparing us for breakthrough! He is speaking very clearly to us about our identity, purpose and goal (see last week's news)!

Yesterday the Lord showed us how our identity, purpose and goal are linked with the key to the Kingdom - AUTHORITY! This is what He revealed to us:

1. God has revealed Himself as the triune God - 3 co-equal persons but 3 different roles!
2. Within the Trinity is a distribution of roles and authority.
3. Jesus is the Son of the Father (identity) and therefore under His authority. Matthew 3:17
4. Jesus demonstrated His submission to the Father's authority by being completely obedient to Him in order to reveal the Father (purpose). Matthew 4:1-10; John 14:6-11
5. Jesus could exercise authority over all the power of the devil (goal) because the Son lived under the Father's authority! Luke 4:14; John 14:11; 1 John 3:8; Acts 10:37,38

Likewise,

1. The Church (God's children) has many co-equal members but many different roles. 1 Cor. 12:12
2. Within the Church is a distribution of roles and authority. 1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 4:7,11
3. We are sons and daughters of God (identity) and therefore under God's authority. Eph.1:22,23
4. We are to live as sons and daughters of God in submission to His authority and to reveal Him (purpose). Eph.5:1,2,8
5. We can only exercise authority if we live in submission to God's authority. James 4:7

The Lord then challenged us with the following:

1. There is a difference between obedience and submission.
2. Obedience is responding to a command.
3. Submission is choosing to obey and "positioning oneself under."
4. Children are to obey their parents because the immature are not yet able to make right choices. Eph. 6:1-4
5. Adults are expected to submit to one another because the mature are able to make right choices. Eph. 5:21,22; 6:5
6. God places authority in our lives for us to learn true submission (spiritual leaders, husbands, fathers, government leaders, police, masters, bosses etc).
7. Our attitude toward earthly authority reveals our attitude toward heavenly authority!
8. We deceive ourselves when we think we can submit to God and not submit to God-given authority!
9. We can only serve one master (Matthew 6:24). Therefore one is either single-hearted or one has a divided heart.
10. We are called to serve God whole-heartedly. Eph. 6.5-9
11. True submission is choosing to obey God whole-heartedly. Eph. 6:5-9

The Lord then showed us what hypocrisy is..

1. Hypocrisy is the veiling of a divided heart.
2. A divided heart is able to obey (externally) but still not be submitted (internally).
3. Hypocrisy manifests itself through:

• deception- convincing oneself that one has obeyed God when one hasn't (1 Sam.15:13)
• self-justification - justifying one's disobedience (1 Sam.15:20,21)
• blame - blaming others for one's disobedience (1 Sam. 15:24)
• sacrifice - trying to cover up disobedience with good works (1 Sam. 15:15)

The Lord has set His people apart (identity) to reveal Himself through them as they live their lives in wholehearted submission to Him (purpose) in order to penetrate the kingdom of darkness with God's authority and establish the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven (goal)!

This Sunday we will be having a Christmas celebration with the homeless and needy, sponsored by the NH hotel group. It will be a wonderful evening!

Quote of the week:

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Eph. 6:10-12

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The Church and the Kingdom of God

All glory belongs to our King!

We are in awe of what God is doing and what He is showing us. Yesterday He gave us the following prophecy:

I am preparing you for breakthrough!

The Lord then gave us insight into where He is taking us and how we will get there by teaching us the difference between identity, purpose and goal. This is what He showed us:

1. In the world one's identity is based on what one does. Our purpose becomes our identity.
2. In the Kingdom one's purpose is based on one's new identity in Christ. Our identity becomes our purpose.
3. Our goal is to fulfill God's will on earth as it is in heaven.

Looking at Matthew 16:13-19 the Lord showed us that,

1. We need a spiritual revelation of who God is and who we are in Him. Matthew16:17,18
2. God builds His Church with Man. Matthew 16:18
3. Jesus builds His Church. Matthew 16:18
4. The Church that Jesus builds will penetrate the kingdom of darkness. Matthew 16:18
5. The Church has been given the keys to establish God's Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 16:19

Therefore KLF's identity, purpose and goal is as follows:

1. Identity - sons and daughters of God, the people of God, the Church, the Body of Christ, the revelation of God on earth as He is in heaven. Gal. 3:26,27; Eph.1:22,23; 1 John 4:17
2. Purpose - to live as sons and daughters of God, the people of God, the Church, the Body of Christ, and to reveal God on earth as He is in heaven. Eph. 3:10; 4, 5
3. Goal - the goal of the Church is to "uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow" the kingdom of darkness and to "build and plant" the Kingdom of God. Jer.1:10; Eph. 6:10-20

God is setting His people (identity) apart to reveal His glory (purpose) and to destroy the kingdom of darkness by establishing God's rule and reign on earth as it is in heaven (goal).

Yesterday evening we had another wonderful opportunity to minister to the poor and needy in Frankfurt. It's just awesome to see how people change as they encounter God through worship, the Word and love. God's Light penetrates the darkness and gives people hope, love, strength and healing! Hallelujah! What a wonderful God we serve!

Quote of the week:

"His (the son of man's) dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed." Dan. 7:14

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Faith expressed through love

Glory to God!

These are exciting times! The Lord is teaching us and showing us how to be the spiritual Body He has redeemed us to be. Consequently we are being challenged to maintain the spiritual unity Jesus accomplished through the cross (Eph. 2:11-18) by making every effort to always be at peace with one another (Eph. 4:3) and to truly love one another with God's love (Agape - Phil. 2:1-5). This applies to our individual lives but is highlighted when we meet together and have the opportunity to manifest spiritual union in the way we relate to one another and worship together.

The Lord is showing us very practically how to exercise spiritual unity and last Tuesday at our weekly prayer meeting, the Lord showed us how to pray together with one accord (Acts 1:14). We learned that to pray in spiritual unity and in one accord we must:

1. Engage - "to pray" is a verb and means that everyone participates
2. Listen - everyone must listen to the Holy Spirit, the leader of the meeting and to one another (James 1:19)
3. Submit - we must submit to the Holy Spirit, the leader of the meeting and to one another (Rom. 13:1; heb. 13:17; Eph. 5:211-6:9; Phil. 2:2-4)
4. Be one in purpose - we must agree and target our prayers (Phil. 2:2; Mat. 18:19,20)
5. Join in the rhythm of the Spirit in the meeting and deny self
6. Be self-controlled - contributing sensitively and waiting on the Lord (1 Cor. 14:26-32)
7. Make room for others - giving people room to participate and not hog the prayer time (Phil.2:3,4; Rom. 12:10,13)

As we applied these principles to our meeting, we entered into an amazingly powerful time of prayer as we worshipped, proclaimed, declared, destroyed, established, decreed and joined together as one, revealing the manifold wisdom of God (Eph. 3:10-12)! Hallelujah!

Yesterday the Lord spoke to us about the relationship between spiritual love and sincere faith, showing us the following:

1. Sincere faith is always accompanied by action. James 2:26
2. Actions that are motivated by eros love mean nothing! 1 Cor. 13:1-3
3. The fruit of sincere faith is action motivated by agape love! 1 Cor. 13:4-8; Gal. 5:6; 2 Cor. 5:14
4. Agape love is a selfless love that initiates and responds according to the Holy Spirit, to reveal God's love for the benefit of others and for the glory of God.
5. Eros love is a selfish love that initiates and reacts according to selfish desires, that reveal the sinful nature/ flesh for one's own benefit and glory!
6. Spiritual love is unconditional.
7. Eros love or soulishness is always conditional.
8. Choosing to reveal God's love within us by denying the flesh (self-life) manifests the Lord's glory. Ex. 34:6; Heb. 1:3

Agape love is a selfless love that initiates and responds according to the Holy Spirit, to reveal God's love for the benefit of others and for the glory of God

In the evening we had the wonderful opportunity to feed the poor and needy and to put the Word into action and demonstrate agape love. Hallelujah!

Quote of the week:

"If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose." Phil. 2:1,2 (emphasis mine)

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