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

God is love!

Glory to God!

Yesterday our Kingdom Life leadership team gave a report about the leadership conference hosted by Kingdom Faith in Horsham, England which our team attended last week. Being in partnership with Kingdom Faith, we are part of God's work not only locally but nation-wide. The connection we have with KF is important as we have apostolic covering, are accountable to the greater Body, benefit from the anointing upon KF, and share in God's purpose for the Church to bring transformation to society and renewal to the Church. As partners we carry the same spiritual DNA that seeks to build communities of faith and love and pursues what is on God's heart for His people, Israel and the nations. You can listen to the interview we had with the KLF leadership team here: http://kingdomlife-frankfurt.com/index3.php?id=1239c.

Elizabeth Nehring, who is part of our leadership team, then shared the experience she had when she stayed with the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary in Darmstadt (http://www.kanaan.org/). As part of what God is showing us concerning essence and form, we are learning to distinguish between the two so that we live from essence rather than from form. God calls us to be uncompromising in essence and flexible in form as we live the Kingdom Life wherever we are. You can listen to Elizabeth's powerful testimony here: http://kingdomlife-frankfurt.com/index3.php?id=1239b.

The Lord then spoke to us about how He wants us to be governed by His love as we return to our First Love. Those who are led by the Spirit of God are led by the God who is love. To remain in God is to remain in love (1 John 4:16). Looking at the account of the rich ruler who came to Jesus (Mark 10:17-23), we saw how Jesus addressed the core issue or the essence - the man's heart. Although the rich ruler appeared to be righteous, his heart was divided - he loved what he owned more than he loved God. The Law and the Prophets are summed up in our responsibility to love (Matthew 22:34-40; Rom.13:8-10). Our lives reveal what is our greatest love. When believers are filled with God, they are filled with love which is evidenced by their lives (see Acts 2:42-47).

We are looking forward to our first ever church retreat this weekend at Rot am See from Friday to Sunday. It will be an awesome time to encounter God and one another and to put love into action. There will therefore be no church service on Sunday afternoon at CZF.

Quote of the week

"God is love. Whoever lives in love, lives in God, and God in him." 1 John 4:16

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Living in the Glory!

Glory to God!

Yesterday was awesome! God is blessing us with His presence as we meet with Him and worship Him. We are excited about the new songs He is releasing during the worship and the way He is ushering us deeper and deeper into His presence and glory. Hallelujah!

It was very special yesterday as two more people became covenant members of KLF. Covenant membership is about relationship - committing one's life (spirit, soul and body) to one another to fulfill the purposes of God in and through us as His people. It means:

1. Establishing our unity in spirit
2. Establishing God's call on one's life to be part of the local Body
3. Establishing one's commitment to one another to live in true fellowship
4. Expressing one's agreement with the values, beliefs and vision of the local Body
5. Expressing one's shared passion for God's purposes in and through the local Body
6. Exercising one's commitment to serve the local Body

As Kingdom Life is further established, the Lord is raising up leaders to equip the people for works of service and to become fully mature in Christ (Eph. 4:11-16). Therefore we appointed two leaders who have been called and anointed to lead God's people. We are excited about how God brings the different parts of His Body together so that we complement one another to express the manifold wisdom of God (Eph. 3:10).

The Lord is continuing to speak to us about suffering and yesterday He spoke to us about how we are to respond to circumstances and living in this world whilst not being of this world. He showed us that there are two ways in which we can relate to our environment - we either react or we respond.

• To react is to allow self and the flesh to rise up and be mastered by one's circumstances.
• To respond is to deal with circumstances according to the will of God.

"Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God." 1 Peter 4:1,2

As the believer chooses to respond to circumstances God's way, he will need to be prepared to bear the consequences of living for God, for the sake of others and for God's glory, i.e. to suffer.

The Lord also spoke to us about how we need to follow His example of obedience to the Father and bear the consequences just like Jesus did (1 Peter 2:21). In particular the Lord revealed the extent of His forgiveness to us that we are called to imitate by showing us that Jesus not only paid the penalty that we owe for our sin but that He also bore our sin in His body (1 Peter 2:24). That means that Jesus dealt with our sin and the consequence of our sin. Jesus took upon Himself our disobedience and what our disobedience deserves. That means that true forgiveness is not only cancelling the debt of sin but also the very sin itself. We are therefore called to forgive as Jesus has forgiven us. Therefore Peter writes,

"Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing." 1 Peter 3:9

As we live for God and are prepared to bear the consequences for the sake of others and for the glory of God, the glory of the Lord is upon us (John 17:22; 2 Cor. 3:17,18; 1 Peter 4:12-16; Is. 60:1-3). God is showing us that as we remain in Christ and respond His way, God's glory is revealed in our lives! Hallelujah!

We give God all the glory for the wonderful things He is showing us and encouraging us with. What an awesome God we serve!


Quote of the week:

Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn." Isaiah 60:1-3

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