Living the Truth

Glory to God!

It has been another exciting week! God is making Himself known to us more and more so that we can know Him more and make Him known more! Hallelujah!

Yesterday the Lord spoke to us about how "the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth" (1 Tim. 3:15), is to prophetically demonstrate the truth by standing firm in it and living it! The Lord showed us how the enemy tries to move the Church away from the truth in order to be able to do his work (see 1 Tim. 4:1-5). If the enemy manages to get believers to move out of grace and into independence and self-righteousness (trying to accomplish righteousness apart from God) then he will have room again to accuse the believer. When believers continue to stand in grace (Rom. 5:2), the enemy has no opportunity to accuse because the believer stands in Christ's righteousness. Every teaching that moves believers out of grace must be rejected as it is false teaching that comes from "deceiving spirits and things taught by demons" (1 Tim. 4:1).

God wants the Church to have full revelation of what He has freely given her. 1 Cor. 2:12; Eph. 2:7; Col. 1:6!

The Lord then immersed us into the truth as we received revelation of what happens to person who has faith in Jesus Christ. Looking at the letter to the Colossians, the Lord showed us the following:

If you have faith in Christ Jesus (1:4)...

• you have been qualified to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 1:12
• you have been rescued from the dominion of darkness. 1:13
• you have been brought into Christ's kingdom. 1:13
• you have been redeemed. 1:14
• you have forgiveness of sins. 1:14
• you have been reconciled to God. 1:21
• you are holy. 1:22
• you are without blemish. 1:22
• you are free from accustation. 1:22
• Christ is in you, the hope of glory. 1:27
• you have received in Christ all the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 2:3
• you have received Christ. 2:6
• you have received fullness in Christ. 2:10
• you were circumcised in Christ. 2:11
• you were buried with Christ. 2:12
• you were raised with Christ. 2:12
• you were made alive with Christ. 2:13
• all your sins are forgiven. 2:13
• you have been set free from the law. 2:14
• you have been set free from the power of the enemy. 2:15
• you have triumphed over the enemy. 2:15
• you are connected to the Church of which Christ is the Head. 2:19
• God causes you to grow in Him. 2:19
• you died with Christ to the pattern of this world. 2:20
• you have been raised with Christ. 3:1
• your life is hidden with Christ in God. 3:3
• Christ is your life. 3:4

Since you are in Christ and Christ is in you...

• you are seated with Christ in the heavenly realms. Eph. 2:6
• you are seated with Christ "far above all rule and authority, power and dominion." Eph. 1:20,21
• The Church, which is His body, is the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way. Eph. 1:22,23

Salvation is therefore union with God in Christ Jesus!

We praise God for His revelation to us by His Spirit, who leads us into truth and reveals the Father and the Son to us. Hallelujah!

God's revelation to us is equipping us to stand firm in the truth and establish Christ's lordship in the city of Frankfurt. This Friday we will be meeting together for an evening of worship and prayer to proclaim Christ's supremacy over this city and over this nation. On Saturday we are joining TPLF for a Narnia party for kids aged 6 - 12 years to provide an exciting alternative to halloween! On Sunday we will have another opportunity to share God's love with the homeless and needy.

Quote of the week:

"...God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming agaes he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in the kindness to us in Christ Jesus." Eph. 2:6,7

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Receiving the Truth!

Praise be to God!

Since the Church has received Christ Jesus as Lord, God wants the Church to continue to live In Christ and be rooted, built up and established in Him (Col. 2:6). For the Church to realise the truth of her identity in Christ, she must have a conviction of the truth and realise the truth in order to demonstrate the truth. Only if the Church carries the conviction of being in Christ, will she rise up and be seated in the place of authority and power that she has received in Christ (Eph. 1:18-23; Col. 2:6 - 3:4)! Kingdom conviction is the faith that realises, reveals and releases the Truth. The Lord then showed us how the believer can receive Kingdom convictions. This is what He showed us:

Hear!

• The believer needs to be exposed to the truth for it to influence him/her. Rom. 10:17

Receive!

• The believer needs to receive the truth by first trusting it, even if s/he does not understand it.
• To trust the truth is to submit to it.
• To receive the truth is to be vulnerable and allow God's truth to do whatever He desires in one's life.
• The believer must learn to receive the truth in His spirit before it is filtered by the natural mind.
• Spiritual revelation of the truth is received in the spirit and then in the heart and mind. 1 Cor. 2:14

Search!

• Once the truth is received, the believer needs to "search the scriptures" to ensure that there are two to three witnesses of the truth. Acts 17:11

Speak!

• God created by speaking. Gen. 1:3; John 1:1-3
• For Kingdom convictions to be formed or birthed in the believer, s/he must speak the truth over her life.
• The believer's utterance has the power to create. Pr. 18:21

Dwell!

• The believer must dwell on the truth and allow the truth to dwell in him/her. John 15:7; Ps. 119:11

Understand!

• The believer must receive spiritual understanding of the truth for it to become a conviction that bears fruit. Mt. 13:11,23
• The believer must depend on the Holy Spirit for spiritual understanding of the truth. John 16:12,13; 1 John 2:27

Apply!

• If the believer has received the truth and understands the truth it will become a conviction that will determine his/her way of life (culture).
• Convictions are only convictions when they affect the believer's lifestyle. Conviction without action is only an opinion!

We praise God for revealing His Truth to us so that Kingdom convictions are formed in our lives that determine our way of life to form Kingdom culture.

Quote of the week:

"The one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown." Matthew 13:23

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Living from the truth

Glory to God!

The Lord is continuing to speak to us about the convictions He wants us to have that will affect our way of life. God is showing us that faith is having convictions based on the truth that change the believer's way of life. Just as faith without works is dead (James 2:26) so are "convictions" without action. True convictions will always be visible. The fruit of the believer's convictions will be evident in his/her daily life. When the Word of God is received and becomes a conviction in the life of the believer, s/he becomes a demonstration of the truth and the Kingdom of God (1 Thess. 1:2-10). The Lord is exposing every "form of godliness" (2 Tim. 3:5) and leading the Church to live from the truth and not from church culture. God is stripping the Church of all superficiality and raising her up to sincerely live from the truth and be the witness of the Kingdom He has called and set her apart to be (1 Peter 1:15,16).

Yesterday we had another opportunity to minister grace and love to the poor and needy at our monthly soup kitchen. The place was packed and yet the peace of God reigned and lives were being touched with God's presence, power and love. Everyone left satisfied, having eaten well and having been in God's presence. We praise God for opportunities such as these to bear the fruit of our convictions! Hallelujah!

Quote of the week:

"But as for you, continue in what you have learned and become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." 2 Tim. 3:14-16 (emphasis mine)

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Revival

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

God wants to revive His people! At Kingdom Faith leaders' conference last week it became very clear to us that God wants the Church to live in revival - revival not only for a season but revival for a generation that will continue from generation to generation, turning the tide of a Godless society! The Holy Spirit is speaking clearly to the Church to both encourage her and to convict her. The encouragement is that God has graced His people to do the work only He can accomplish but He is calling the Church to reveal and release what she has received to glorify God and to save the lost.

The Lord is saying the same thing to KLF. God is building His Kingdom and He has chosen and graced the Church to co-labour with Him (2 Cor. 6:1). To build God's Kingdom is to develop Kingdom culture - the way of life that is determined by Kingdom influence and Kingdom convictions.

Yesterday the Lord showed us a further Kingdom conviction that the believer must have to build Kingdom culture. This is what He revealed to us:

• In the beginning God created man to be like Him - to be God-like or godly. Gen. 1:26-28
• When man disobeyed God, he became independent of God and separated himself from His union with God, therefore becoming ungodly. Eph. 2:12
• When man tries to be like God apart from God, he develops a form of godliness without God and therefore without power and still remains ungodly. 2 Tim. 3:1-5
• Jesus came to die for the ungodly in order to restore man's union to God and therefore make man godly again. Rom. 5:6-8
• Salvation is union with God.
• The unbeliever is dead, independent, seperated from God and ungodly.
• The believer is alive, dependent on God, joined to God and godly.
• The 4th conviction God wants KLF to have is that "I am godly."
• God has given the believer everything s/he needs for life and godliness in Christ Jesus. 2 Peter 1:3
• The believer has received every spiritual blessing by grace to reveal God and release His power. Eph. 1:3; 2:6
• God created man to be like Him and to bear fruit. Gen. 1:28
• God has graced the believer to do good works that can only be done out of his/her union with God. Luke 18:18,19
• Apart from God the believer cannot do good works or bear lasting fruit. John 15:5
• Jesus could not do good works or bear lasting fruit apart from the Father. John 5:18
• Good works are the evidence of the believer's union with God.
• God has graced every believer to reveal His glory - His personality, power and presence.
• The fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit are the evidence of our union with God. Gal. 5:22; 1 Cor. 12; John 14:10-12

The believer is God's workmanship (God's poem) created in Christ Jesus as a new creation to be like God and do His work in His power to reveal His glory.

God is giving us spiritual revelation to quicken us with His Truth so that we are revived. A revived people are a godly people who influence the ungodly with God's presence, power and personality in order to reconcile them to God. Praise God for His awesome power that is at work in us (Eph. 3:20)!

Quote of the week:

"For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life." Eph. 2:10 (NRSV)

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Ordination

Glory to God!

We are encountering God in our meetings and enjoying true fellowship with Him. On Sunday the Lord spoke to us about a further Kingdom conviction He wants us to have that will affect our way of life to produce Kingdom culture. This is what He showed us:

• God has created every person to uniquely reveal God in a way that only that individual can.
• God wants to reveal Himself through the believer so that all that God has placed in the believer is made manifest through him/her.
• The believer can only reveal God to the degree that s/he has received revelation of God.
• God wants to reveal Himself through the believer but not replace the uniqueness of the believer's personality! Psalm 139:13-18
• The Kingdom conviction God wants us to have is: God thinks I am wonderful!
• When you have the conviction that God thinks you are wonderful, you will stop trying to be someone else to please man or to impress God.
• Masks are put up when we try to be someone different and hide our true identity and therefore the revelation of God.
• Walls are erected to protect ourselves from harm and criticism but self-erected walls isolate us from God's revelation and from revealing Him to others.
• God wants these walls to come down to reveal the Spirit within us for He is our Wall and our Defence. Psalm 91

When we have the conviction that "God thinks I am wonderful" we won't put up masks or walls but will uniquely reveal God in us.

From Monday to Wednesday the leaders of KLF attended another dynamic and Spirit-filled Kingdom Faith leaders' conference in Horsham, England where we encountered God very powerfully and received life-changing revelation and teaching that will take us even further in our relationship with God as a leadership team and as a church. On Wednesday, Richard and Frances were ordained and anointed as pastors of KLF by pastors Clive and Colin Urquhart. Being in covenant relationship with Kingdom Faith means that Kingdom Life is covered by the apostolic anointing on Kingdom Faith and apostle Colin Urquhart. This ordination is a very significant step for KLF as the spiritual leadership of Richard and Frances is established not only in KLF but also in the city of Frankfurt and the nation of Germany. God's order is being established in the Church so that His power and purposes can be unfolded and released through His Body. Hallelujah! We praise God for our relationship with KF and the anointing that is flowing in and through KLF because of our spiritual unity!

Quote of the week:

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well...How precious to me (concerning me) are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!" Psalm 139:13,14,17

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