Encouraging, Empowering & Equipping Ordinary Christians To Live Powerful Missional Lives!
When planning to use social media to help share Jesus with others and declare God's Glory then there needs to be some serious consideration given to the kinds of posts that you should make. In this video I am going to share with you 3 kinds of post that will help you make most of Christ in your part of this dark world. This is part two in a series called: HOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO SHINE THE LIGHT OF CHRIST! To see Part 1 CLICK HERE!
As the Apostle Paul was writing his letter to the church at Colosse he tells the Christians there about a prayer that he offers up to God on their behalf. This prayer contains some important information about knowing God's Will. Read what it says,
"For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through spiritual wisdom and understanding ..." Colossians 1:9 (NIV)
In this one verse we can learn 3 important facts about knowing God's will. They are:
Did you notice as you read the verse about that Paul said this this prayer is a prayer that he is praying for them daily? For the Apostle Paul making sure that new believers in Christ were fully grounded in Christ was essential and if he was to accomplish that goal it was of the utmost importance that the new believers knew the will of God!
Paul knew that being fully matured in Christ would require new believer to know what God's will is. It would be impossible for them to be strong in their faith and not know God's will. That's why he prayed daily for those coming to faith. That's why his prayers contained petitions that those new believers would know and understand God's will.
How Important And Essential Is Knowing God's Will To You?
How often do you pray for the new believers that you know about? That they would know God's will?
Did you notice in that verse that Paul was asking God to fill them with the knowledge of His will? Who's doing the filling? God is! Who's the container being filled? We are!
Why is this important? Simply because, you don't discover God's will - no instead it is God who reveals His will to us. If we are going to understand what God's will is - it is because God has opened our eyes to see the truth of His will. If God doesn't enlighten us we could never understand His will.
Finally Paul states in his prayer that he is asking God to fill us with his will through spiritual wisdom and understanding. Not human wisdom and understanding but spiritual wisdom and understanding. The wisdom of this world does not and cannot comprehend the will of God. To the world the will of God sounds like foolishness. Understanding God's will requires us to have spiritual wisdom and understanding that come from God.
The word for "wisdom" means the ability to understand what God is doing and the word for "understanding" means the ability to apply what they understand. You see not only does God want us to understand His will is but He also wants us to know how to apply His will to our everyday life. God doesn't just tell you what His will is to keep you informed - God shares his will with you because he wants you to join Him in what He is doing.
Please leave a comment sharing what you think and share this post with your social media of Facebook and Twitter.
Pastor Billy and His Family!
This Saturday, June 3rd I will be in Glens Ferry, Idaho at First Baptist Church with Pastor Billy to lead his congregation in the Gospel Conversation Training. It is his desire to see his church raised up, trained up and unleashed to go share the Gospel to every person in their ministry field until there's no place left to share.
Step 1: Entry Stage
Before you can begin to see a powerful missional movement of Disciple Making/Church Planting you need to have an "ENTRY STRATEGY" in place. What's an entry strategy? It's your initial plan for how to bring the Gospel of Christ into your mission field so that it takes hold. It's your plan for developing a "Beachhead" in your mission field that will allow you to expand and take over the rest of the area for Christ.
Step 2: Gospel Sowing Stage
Once you've established your presence in the mission field by implementing your entry stage strategy, now you need to sow the Gospel of Jesus Christ liberally! How will you do it? What will be your strategy for getting the Good News of Christ out to ever increasing groups of people?
Step 3: Nurturing Growth Stage
Just like any harvest fields that begin to show growth there also need to be the watering and nurturing that continues to until its time to harvest, so there needs to be the nurturing of new believers in spiritual growth and obedience to Christ and His commands. What is your strategy for help new believers grow in Christ and become reproducing disciple makers?
Step 4: Harvest and Bundling Stage
Now its time to harvest! In this analogy the harvesting means church formation. Every great movement results in the formation of new churches. What is your strategy for taking this new believers and growing disciples and help them form into new churches.
Step 5: New Missionary Leader Stage
The final stage is the raising up, training up and unleashing of new apostolic leaders who will go and ignite new movements in different places. What is your strategy for identifying, training and commissioning these new missionaries?
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In this video you will get to hear Steve Addison interview Daniel Reece on how God reached out to him and then has been using him to ignite a powerful movement here in North America. WATCH & BE ENCOURAGED!
Recently I read this quote by Rick Warren the Pastor of Saddleback Church and I thought it had a lot to say to us who claim to be Christ's followers and what it means to be successful. Here's what it says:
“Being successful and fulfilling your life's purpose are not at all the same thing; You can reach all your personal goals, become a raving success by the worlds standard and still miss your purpose in this life.” ― Rick Warren
As I read this I started asking myself some questions:
As I pondered these questions 2 thoughts came to mind that I believe are so very important to remember:
THOUGHT #1:
How horrible it would be to stand before God on the Last Day (Judgement Day) and begin to share with Christ how I had accomplished so many great and different goals only to hear Jesus reply with, "But that's not what I had ask you to do or accomplish!" Wouldn't it be terrible to have placed your ladder of success and ascended it - only to have realized once you got to the top that you had place it on the wrong wall! I want to hear the words of my Lord say to me, "Well done good and faithful servant."
God's plan and ministry for us is to be His ambassador to this spiritually dark world by making God's appeal for people to be reconciled to Him as if it was God Himself making the appeal through us. Therefore, we are to be His ambassadors that intentionally engages in the ministry of reconciliation. That is accomplished through disciple making. So, the question bids an answer: How successful are we at making disciples for Christ?
THOUGHT #2:
Success from God's perspective is very different from success in the world's perspective! The world says you are successful if you accomplish great results but the Bible says we are successful when we are obedient to what He has commanded of us.
Over and over again we hear the Bible teach that obedience is better than sacrifice; or for us to be doers of the word and not hearers only, and to teach new believers to obey all that Christ commanded. Jesus even shared that being obedient to Him is an expression of our love for Him.
We work and train to do our best at what Christ commanded but in the end success isn't defined by the results but by our willingness and faithfulness to do what He said. The results are in God's hands but our obedience is in our hands.
So, in the final analysis as Followers of Christ we need to intentionally pursue the role of being Christ Ambassadors, to sharing the Gospel to those still lost in spiritual darkness and to obeying all that Christ has commanded. If we can do that then we are successful!
How do people outside the church view the church? How do people inside the church view the church? Does our perception of the church have an effect on the relevance we give to the church? And is our perception of the church Biblical and accurate? These are some of the question we are going to look at in this post. I pray it gives you something to chew on and help you become a better Light of Christ in your part of this dark world!
Many of God's people feel inadequate in the obedience to Christ in the making of disciples of all peoples! Why? A lack of competence and confidence! Watch this video to learn the solution to this problem.
"Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Romans 13:8-12 (NIV)
"Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another ..."
The first place to start when it comes to improving you ability to love is to remember that God first loved you when you were unlovable. God loved us while we were still in the middle of our sinful condition and He demonstrated that love by having Jesus die on the cross to take the punishment that we deserved for our sins. Then God after Christ's resurrection offered forgiveness of sin as a free gift if we would only receive it by faith. How can you pay back that kind of debt? You can't but we can pay it forward by loving others the way Christ loved us.
"Love your neighbor as yourself ..."
The next place to go for improving your ability to love is to remember that the scripture tell us to love others as we love ourselves. Just as you take care of yourself - in the same way you should also take care of others. If you are one who doesn't love yourself very well then do what Christ said. "A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another like I have loved you."
"Love does no harm to a neighbor."
And finally, in order to improve your ability to love others better you should always remember that love does not harm others. When we love people it is our intent to build them up - not to tear them down! It's to heal them - not injure them! Here's a good question to ask yourself before you talk to someone or do something to someone:
"Is what I am about to say or do going to harm this person?"
If the answer is "yes" then don't do it! Why? Because love does no harm!
Now that these suggestions and go out into your part of this dark world and love people liberally! Shine the Light of Christ brightly by doing loving deeds in such a way that God gets the glory for it.
In Acts 8:26-40 we have an amazing story about an ordinary christian by the name of Philip who was used by God in an amazing way. From it we learn some powerful principles for shining the Light of Christ brightly in our part of this dark world. Watch and see what you might learn.
Take a few moments and share your thought as a comment.
Today I want to share with you a true story from the Bible that should bring you hope and encouragement. It will make clear to you that Jesus truly does love you and is willing to change your life.
If you are a fully devoted follower of Christ that wants to join Christ on His mission then I highly encourage you to learn this story for yourself and begin to share it with people over and over again.
In today's post I want to share with you about our credibility for living a missional life. How will people know that what we are sharing about Jesus, about the Gospel or the forgiveness of sin is accurate and true? The answer comes back to our credibility! Are we credible? Can people believe us? Watch this video and see what God is telling you!
Once you've shared Jesus with every person you personally know who do you share it with next? That is going to be the topic of this post! After all we are not released from sharing the Good News simply because everyone we personally know has already heard. So, who do we tell next?
Who Do You Share The Gospel With Next?
Confidence In Offering A Prayer Of Faith
When it comes to living a powerful missional life that brightly shines the Light of Christ in our part of this dark world prayer is essential. But not just any kind of prayer but prayers where there is confidence that God will hear and answer it.
So much of our prayers is what I like to call, "I hope God will answer my prayers!" but there's no confidence that God will actually do it. We are praying with uncertainty that God will actually do what we are asking Him to do. On top of this lack of confidence there is just a lot of "BAD" teaching going on in the name of "PRAYING IN FAITH". To many people out there like to take just one passage of scripture and emphasis it to the exclusion of other essential and indispensable verses on topic. This is a very bad practice to develop! In learning to praying in faith we need to understand the full council of God. Failure to do so can lead a person into a practice that's not only unbiblical but potentially destructive to their faith.
There are 3 Indispensable Biblical parts for having confidence that God will answer your prayers the way you have asked him to.
Let me emphasis that they are essential and indispensable!
Why? Because they are like 3 legs on a stool! If you remove any of legs from the stool, leaving only 2 legs, the stool will fall down! ALL THREE LEGS ARE INDISPENSABLE! The ability to pray and know that your prayers will be answered requires us to have all three of these indispensable parts in place. Remove one of the parts and you no longer can have confidence and certainty that your prayers will be answered the way you are asking! But if you have all three parts in place you can pray with confidence and know you have what you ask for. So, what are they?
"Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight." 1 John 3:21,22
This is the part that makes sure that you the one praying is in a proper spiritual condition to come before God and ask Him to do something. Knowing that we are in a spiritual condition that allows us to come into God's presence and be accepted is a vital part to knowing that your prayers will be answered.
In order to know if we are in a proper spiritual condition to come before God with our petitions we need to do a spiritual inventory of our life. We need to see if there are any unconfessed sins that still need God's forgiveness. If their is sin then the activity that is needed is a prayer of honest confession from true repentance. In 1 John 1:9 God gives us assurance that our sins can be forgiven with this simple act. Read what it says,
"If we confess our sin that God is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
Why should we think that we can receive anything from the Lord if our hearts are not right with the Lord. To have confidence that our prayers will be heard by God depends first and foremost if we are prepared to even ask for it.
Question To Ask Yourself:
Is There Any Unconfessed Sin In Your Life That Needs To Be Dealt With And Made Right With God?
"This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him." 1 John 5:14,15
This part deals with the actual request being made. Is what we are asking for according to God's will or not. This passage of scripture makes it perfectly clear that when our requests are inline with God's will we know God hears us and we know He will give us what we ask for.
If you are asking for something that is not according to God's will it doesn't matter how much, how often or even how passionately you ask God for it, it you will not receive it. Why? Because it wasn't part of God's will. In order to pray in faith with confidence you must know what God's will is! If you are uncertain what God's will is on a particular matter then before you can pray in faith about it you must first pray for God to reveal His will to you about it. Listen to what James 1:5 says,
"If anyone lacks wisdom you should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be given to him."
What a wonderful assurance this verse provides us. If we ask God to reveal His will to us by giving us wisdom He promises to do it. NOW THAT'S POWERFUL! Once God reveals to you His will concerning the matter then you can begin to pray in accordance to God's will with confidence that God will answer it.
Question To Ask Yourself:
Do You Know What God's Will Is Concerning The Matter You're Praying About?
Once you know that you are able to go into God's presence to make your request and once you know what God's will is concerning the issue you are praying about, then you can make your request to God but you have to make it in faith and without any doubt that God will do exactly what you are asking Him to do. NO DOUBT!
"Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. 'Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." Mark 11:22-23
Praying in faith and without doubt is essential to answered prayers. However, this kind of faith that I am talking about is not a faith that controls God and makes Him do whatever we want. That kind of faith reduces God to be like genie in a bottle. Our God is not a genie that has to give us our three wishes. No! Our God is the Sovereign Lord of all creation. God doesn't do our will - we are to do His will! Biblical faith is not some kind of force that makes God do what we want.
Biblical faith is surrender to God's will and joining God in accomplishing His will! This prayer of faith is because you already know what God is going to accomplish, you have discovered His will on the matter, and through faith you are surrendering your will over to God's will and fully trusting that God will, not maybe, accomplish exactly what He said He would do. In other words when you pray a prayer of faith you have no doubt that what you are asking is going to happen because you know that God already has willed it to happen!
Question To Ask Yourself:
Once God Has Revealed To You What His Will Is Do You Have The Faith To Pray That It Will Happen Without Doubt?
When you are certain that all three of this parts are in place then you can have confidence that God not only hears your prayers but that you will also receive for what you have asked. Remove one of these three part or legs and the stool will fall. All three are essential and indispensable if you are to receive in prayer what you have asked God to do.
If you are going to have a powerful missional life that brightly shines the Light of Christ in your part of this dark world then you will need to have confidence in your prayer life! You will need to have confidence that God hears and will answer your prayers!
In this video I am going to share with you one Biblical way you can have that confidence.
Have you ever asked a question, sincerely wanting an answer, but once the answer was given you really didn't like it? When it comes to why God allows His people to suffer no answer is really comforting. The answer itself actually might be very hard to swallow and accept.
In today's post I am going to lead us to examine one explanation for why God's people suffer. But let me be up front with you from the get go; I don't think it's going to taste very good in your mouth. It's true but hard to accept. And while it may be hard to accept it is also at the same time very challenging and noble. Take a moment and read the verse that I am going to be using as my text.
"For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you." 2 Corinthians 4:6-12 (NIV)
I just love how verse 6 starts off. God who made the light shine in darkness also made His light shine in our hearts through the knowledge of God that we see in Christ. GOD MADE HIS LIGHT SHINE IN US! That's just powerful. We didn't discover the Light! We didn't create the Light! We did't even put the Light inside ourselves. The Light of Christ that shines through us is a work of God from start to completion. It was through God's initiative and by His own hand that the Light of Christ lives in us and shines through us. In other words, we are God's chosen vessels, that He is displaying His light through in our part of this spiritually dark world. That's our purpose and our mission. POWERFUL! SIMPLY POWERFUL!
We contain Christ's Light in "Jars of Clay" or in our broken and feeble mortal bodies. Now here it comes. This is the part that can be hard to swallow! God has chosen to display his light in the broken down and beaten up bodies of His saints in order to show the world that the power His saints display are not from them but really from God.
God wants to make sure that the world realizes who is truly the one powerful! God wants to make sure that we, his saints, don't get the credit for what He has done and for the credit that He deserves. And to insure that God's power and Light is manifested to the world in such a way that He alone get's the glory, He (God) allows his saints to experience trials, tribulations, persecutions and all kinds of hardships. In dying with Christ, through persecution, the life of Christ is manifested through us!
Here's why I also call this explanation and this kind of lifestyle noble: It's what the Apostle Paul says at the end of these verses.
"So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you."
It's NOBLE because all this suffering and dying is intended for the eternal life to be made available to others who still need to experience it. Nobility isn't define by what you say you believe but through your acts of righteousness out of your beliefs. What better act of righteousness is there than a person willing to suffer and even die so that others can see Jesus and receive eternal life? DON'T YOU THINK IT SOUNDS VERY CHRIST LIKE? ISN'T THAT EXACTLY WHAT CHRIST DID FOR US?
As Followers of Christ we are still here on planet earth for one reason and one reason only! That reason is simply so we can live a powerful missional life that brightly shines the Light of Christ in our part of this dark world. If nothing else is accomplished and we simple shine Jesus in a way that God gets the glory and not us then we've accomplish all that is of real importance. And as we accept our role of being the Light of the World then we need to also accept the very real possibility that suffering will be a part of that shining.
Many of God's people are sensing that Christ's return might be coming more sooner than later! But the question that begs to be answered is: What should God's people concentrate on as they are waiting for Christ's return?
From God's word we can see 4 things we are told should be our aim and priority as we wait. Whether Christ's return is sooner or later these four things should always be what we focus on.
"The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen" 1 Peter 4:7-11 (NIV)
There are two important factors that are vital to help us maintain a steadfastness in praying. They are being "Alert" and "Sober Minded". Being alert means that we are to be aware of what is happening around us both in the physical word and in the spiritual world. How can we pray as we should if we are not noticing what is happening around us.
The second is like the first but also slightly different and that is to be sober minded. We need to keep ourselves from becoming intoxicated by the pleasures and the trappings of this world. Intoxication of this world is probably the biggest hinderance to a powerful and God honoring prayer life.
Peter says two important things when it comes to the love that we need to have for one another. First, he tells us that we need to love each other deeply. Our love for our brothers and sisters in Christ can't be a surface kind of love that is more "talk" than it is a "walk'. Talk cheap love doesn't do anything for anybody accept offer flattery. We need to show deep love for one another because as the day approaches for Christ's return we might actually need to lay down our lives for one another out of love. If you don't have a deep love for each other you won't be willing to die for that person.
Next Peter tells us that love covers a multitude of sins. That means if we really love someone and I mean really love them we will over look their faults and even their sins agains us. We will forgive each other even in the midst of them persecuting us.
Hospitality without grumbling. Attitude is everything. If you do all the right things but do them all with the wrong attitude - it's still wrong and amounts to nothing. Doing something nice for someone but not really wanting to still displeases God. God wants us to desire with all our hearts to express love through good deeds.
God has given you spiritual gifts not for your benefit but for the benefit of His body - the church and for it to be done in such a way that Christ gets the praise! God ministers to His people, through His people, by using their spiritual gifts. You need to use your spiritual gifts, use them liberally and use them to strengthen your church fellowship.
We believe that ordinary christians are God primary choice for doing His extraordinary work. Throughout scripture we see God choosing to use everyday people to join Him on His mission of raising up, training up and unleashing them to become rapidly reproducing disciple makers. The Ordinary Christians intends to join God in that pursuit.
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