Monday 24 September 2018

God's vision for the Church


Glory to God!

It was very special to have Holger Genzmer with us two weeks ago as he shared God's Word with us and ministered to us prophetically. After a powerful time of worship, Holger shared a message entitled, "Seated in Heavenly places" in which he encouraged us, to not only live from our new identity in Christ, but to also live from the truth that we are seated with Christ and have authority and power in Christ to bring heaven on earth in our daily lives. Holger prophesied that KLF's prayers have been gathered and that the answers are about to be released in this season. As a prophetic act, Richard, Frances, Alexander and Natalie held up a net under which people could enter under and step into the full blessing of living in Christ (Eph 1:3)! It was a beautiful, powerful and significant time as we sensed God pour out His Anointing over the leaders and the Body as described in Psalm 133. Hallelujah!

Yesterday we had our Vision Sunday, a time for the church family to come together and hear what is on God's heart for us, to understand where He wants to take us and how we believe we will get there, to find out how we are doing and what is being planned for the future. Richard spoke to us about vision and in his message entitled, "Up,in, out", he showed us the following:

  • The Church is not an organisation that exists to fulfil the pastor's vision!
  • The Church is the people of God living to fulfil God's vision for the Church.
  • God reveals the vision but it is up to His people to be faithful stewards of what God has entrusted them with - the church must steward what she has in her hand (see Ex 4:1-5).
  • God's vision for the Church is Jesus! The Church is the redeemed of God on her journey to heaven and is called to be like Christ in this world (Jn 16:23,24; 17:26; 13:14-17, 34; 17:8).
  • Being like Jesus means reaching up (getting to know God more and going deeper with Him); reaching in (loving and serving our church family) and reaching out (influencing the world and reaching the Lost with our faith).
  • Acts 2:42-47 reveals the fruit of a Spirit-filled people - a people devoted to God (UP), a people devoted to one another (IN) and a people devoted to God's salvation purposes (OUT)!
  • God's vision for the Church is the same for the whole Body of Christ, globally and locally.
  • How the vision is fulfilled in the local church is determined by who is part of the church and how each person contributes to the fulfillment of the vision with his or her gifts, passion, personality and energy.
  • What we do must be governed by God's vision for us.
  • How we do that is determined by who we are, the involvement of the people in the church and the relationships that are formed within the local body and the those outside the local body.
  • The uniqueness of any local church is determined by stewardship and not vision.

Living the Kingdom life wherever we are is about being like Jesus in this world: reaching up, reaching in and reaching out on our journey to heaven and faithfully stewarding what God has entrusted us with so that we are a significant part of the fulfillment of God's vision for the Church.




After a short break, Richard spoke to the church about where we are at in terms of changes in our leadership structure, ministry leaders' roles and responsibilities, the situation with our various ministries, the ministries outside the church that we are presently supporting, various meetings, etc., after which Tim gave us a report on KLF's finances.
Frances then shared what we believe is needed to fulfil God's vision for us and looked at ways we can reach up, in and out in the areas of discipleship, pastoral care and the establishing of Life Groups as well as helped us to think creatively about ways that we as a church can reach out to the lost and our local community.
Richard then informed us about the projects we are working on, changes and plans concerning our premises and what we are planning for the coming year in terms of conferences, trips, and special events.
We then had a session for questions and answers.
Natalie then led us into a time for us to reflect on what God had been saying to us in the meeting and asking the Holy Spirit to help us to identify how we can all be a significant part of the fulfilment of God's vision for KLF. As a prophetic response to God's Word to us, Natalie encouraged each one of us to contribute one personal item and place it in a silver bowl to symbolise what Alexander stated as, "The redemption of God's gifts for the purpose of fulfilling His vision for KLF." It was a joyous and fun time of celebration as many made a commitment to be devoted to the Lord, His people and His salvation purposes as they placed their "gift" into the silver bowl.

We praise God for this exciting journey we are on together and for the things He has prepared for us as His people. Hallelujah!

Notices

26.09 - KLF Prayer Meeting at 19:30 at Leipziger Str.60 (L60)
17.11 - Proverbs & Jazz from 18:00 at the Awake Café, Frankfurt
01.12 - Connect Café from 15:00 - 17:00 at L60 for the church and newcomers

2019 
16,17.01 - Joint prayer meetings as part of the Allianz Gebetswoche
01.02 - 03.02 - Prophetic Encounter with André Bronkhorst
14 - 16.06 - Experiencing the Holy Spirit with Edgar Mayer







Monday 10 September 2018

Called by God


Glory to God!

As we continue our journey of discovering what it means to live the Kingdom life, the Lord is helping us understand what it means to be the Church and what He has called us to both corporately and individually. Yesterday Richard shared a message entitled, "God's calling" in which he showed us the following:

  1. The Church is God's called out ones (ekklesia). 1 Pet 2:9-12
  2. We are called out of the kingdom of darkness and into the Kingdom of light to do God's will. Eph 5:8-10
  3. God's calling is both general (that which applies to all believers) and specific (that which applies to each person uniquely). Eph 2:10
  4. God's will or calling for the whole Church is to reach up (to grow in our knowledge of God, to worship Him with our lives and to pray, etc); to reach in (to love and serve one another in the Church and to meet regularly to encourage one another, etc) and to reach out (to be salt and light in the world, to be ambassadors of Christ, to be witnesses to reach the lost, etc).
  5. God's specific and unique will or calling for each believer can be identified according to the following:
  • Gifts: What gifts has God graced you with? Rom 12:6-8
  • Recognition: Do other believers recognise the grace upon your life? Gal 2:9
  • Achievement: Does your gifting produce fruit? 1 Thess 2:19,20
  • Passion: What moves you and inspires you to live for? Col 1:24-29
  • Energy: What energises and motivates you? Col 1:28,29
Be the best version of yourself 
in the power of the Holy Spirit! (Rom 12:3)

As the Church fulfills her calling and each part does his or her work, God is glorified, the Church is built up to maturity and the lost are saved! Hallelujah!

 Notices

23.09 - 17:00 Special KLF Church Family meeting after regular church meeting 
26.09 - KLF Prayer Meeting at 19:30 at Leipziger Str.60



Monday 3 September 2018

Christ in us!

 
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Glory to God!

As we continue on this exciting journey of learning to live the Kingdom life, the Lord is urging us to follow Him wholeheartedly. In his message entitled, "Make up your mind!" Alexander spoke to us a couple of weeks ago about what it means to follow God and be set apart for Him. Looking at the account of Elijah on Mount Carmel in 1 Kings 18, Alexander showed us how the Lord does not want us to "waver between two opinions" but believe that the Lord is God and follow Him! Just as Elijah stood alone in God's presence, not fearing man and as he built an altar for God, aligned himself to God's Word, understood his identity, presented an offering to God, soaked the offering and depended on God, so believers must learn to live before God, not fearing man, rebuild the "altars" that are broken in their lives, align themselves to God's truth, live according to their identity in Christ, present themselves as "living sacrifices," be emptied of self and be soaked with the Spirit as they completely depend on God. Alexander encouraged us to stand firm in God's Kingdom to be salt and light in this world so that the Lost are awakened and the Church is revived! Hallelujah!

On Sunday Richard shared a message entitled, "Let Christ be formed inyou" in which he explained how we cannot live in Christ unless He lives in us. Using the analogy of a pregnant woman, Richard showed us the following:
  1. Unless Christ lives in us, we cannot live in Christ.
  2. Those who believe in Jesus, receive Christ's life - Eternal Life. 1 Jn 5:10-12
  3. The apostle Paul lived by faith in Christ in him. Gal 2:20; Phil 1:21; Col 3:4
  4. Christ's life is real! 1 Jn 1:1,2
  5. Life is living and active. By definition it grows, reproduces, responds and continually changes.
  6. To live in Christ is to walk like Christ. 1 Jn 2:6
  7. For Christ to live in us, He must be formed in us. Gal 4:19
  8. For Christ's life to be formed in us, we must believe the truth, commune with the truth and respond to the truth of Christ in us. 
In response to God's Word to us we shared communion together and reflected on the profound truth of Christ in us. Hallelujah!

Notices

23.09 - 17:00 Special KLF Church Family meeting after regular church meeting 
26.09 - KLF Prayer Meeting at 19:30 at Leipziger Str.60