Submission for the mission

 

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Glory to God!

As we move towards Christ's return, we are seeing how God is aligning His people to His rule and reign and restoring His divine order in the Church (Eph 1:8-10). At the same time we are seeing the god of this age distorting the image of God as Creator, Father and Loving Authority and moving the world towards lawlessness and anarchy (2 Thess 2:7). On Sunday, Richard showed us how God is restoring His divine order in the Church as we looked at Hebrews 13:17,18 which reads,

"Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you."

In his message entitled "Restoring Godly Authority," which you can listen to here, Richard encouraged us to examine our hearts concerning our attitude towards authority and to understand God's purpose in placing authority in our lives. This is what he showed us:

• God calls us to obey imperfect leaders, whether they are governors, teachers, parents, bosses, pastors, etc. since there is no such thing as a perfect leader.
• Rather than asking who deserves to be obeyed, God challenges us to examine our heart attitude towards authority in general. Luke 10:25-37
• Our heart attitude toward authority in the natural is a reflection of our heart attitude in the spirit. 1 John 4:20,21
• To the degree we honour a leader's or someone's life we will be rewarded and will benefit from that person's life. Matthew 10:41
• We will not benefit from the anointing upon a leader's or a person's life if we are overfamiliar with, and do not honour that person. Mark 6:1-6
• Leaders are leaders because of their responsibility and not because they are perfect!
• We must keep the greater good in mind as we work with our leaders to get the job done. Matthew 4:19
• The purpose of submission to leadership is to serve the mission and to help the leader fulfill his or her responsibility with joy.
• We support our leaders by praying for them, helping them, encouraging them, thanking them, protecting them and honouring their responsibility.

You can read a more detailed explanation of these points here.

We praise God for the revelation of His realm and His order to bring us into the fullness of His Kingdom!

Upcoming Events

02.06 - KLF Church Prayer Meeting @ Leipziger Str. 60 

05.07 - Baptism Service @ Haeberlinstr.3
17-19.07 - Hearing from Heaven with Francois Botes and Alexander Blair

A people of vision

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Glory to God!

Yesterday we had a powerful time of worship in song and proclamation of Christ's lordship over the nations. We spent time declaring Jesus' name and authority over each of our own respective nations and Germany. It was very powerful indeed. We then interviewed a couple of our people who regularly go on the streets of Frankfurt to share the love of God and the Gospel. It was great to see their passion and to hear some of their testimonies that encouraged more of our people to be part of our evangelism team.

Looking at James 1:13-15, we noted the following principles concerning vision and the process involved to fulfill vision. We saw that vision is fulfilled desire and that the same principles apply to the process of fulfilling desire whether they are evil desires, good desires or godly desires. The vision cycle shows the process that James reveals:

 

Vision - the cycle begins with seeing what the fulfillment of the desire looks like. 

Motivation - seeing what the fulfilled desire would look like motivates one to move toward it. Temptation is motivation in the wrong direction. It drags us away and entices us (Jas 1:14). Motivation stirs desire. We are motivated and begin to think, "That sounds good!"

Conception - if temptation/motivation is accepted, it will conceive desire. We say, "I want that!"

Choice - once desire is conceived we make a choice in our hearts to pursue the fulfilled desire (vision). We say, "I will go for it!"

Action - once our choice has been made, we will act on our desire until it is fulfilled. The desire gives birth to action which eventually leads to the fulfillment of the desire (Jas 1:15).

We also noted that we don't usually have just one vision for our lives but multiple visions for different areas of our lives (personal, professional, family, ministry, etc). The apostle Paul, for example, had a vision for his ministry (Col 1:28,29) and for his personal life (Php 3:10-14). We were encouraged to review what our desires are (whether they are bad, good or godly) and what it would look like if our God-given desires were fulfilled. These are the desires that God wants to give us and that He encourages us to pursue (Ps 37:4). Having vision of God-given desires fulfilled gives life and purpose. Sadly when people don't have vision, their lives fall apart (Pr 29:18).

Upcoming events

08.12. - KLF Christmas Musical @ 15:00 at Eastsite 15
24.01. - 26.01. - Worship seminar with Francois Botes 
  

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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