Spirit-filled Church

Spirit-Filled Church. What is it?

“Church” is the body of Christ.
The body of Christ are the believers.
A believer cannot be a believer unless the Holy Spirit indwells him.
1. Therefore, the Spirit-filled church is a congregation of the believers (saved / born-again / regenerated).
2. It is a congregation living holy lives.
3. It is a people being persecuted (ridiculed / insulted / harmed) for their faith – because being Spirit-filled, they are in constant friction with the world.
4. It is believers who submit to the authority of the Holy Spirit.
5. The Spirit-filled church exalts Jesus Christ – not His gifts.
6. It is believers whose gifts of the Holy Spirit work in unity and harmony. No particular gift overtaking another.
7. A Spirit-filled church is always the target of the Enemy who will woo the flock from Holy worship to unholy entertainment, wonders and signs.
8. Believers whose eyes are on Christ and Him crucified.

Spirit-Filled Church – what is it not?

1. It is certainly not an entertainment venue.
2. It is not a gathering of seekers.
3. It does not glorify the gifts of the Holy Spirit over and above Jesus.
4. It is not a place for personalities and celebrities to teach their own man-made doctrines.

Who will be uncomfortable in a Spirit-Filled Church? (according to A W Tozer – Alive in the Spirit)

1. Controlling people – their good intentions go higher than God’s purpose. Even their prayers are based on what they want and when they want it, even if its contrary to the plain teaching of Scripture.
2. Sunday Morning Christians – They carefully remove the religion suit and keep it for next Sunday.
3. Pleasure addicts – They are so addicted to entertainment and pleasure that if the Holy Spirit moved in their midst, they will be highly uncomfortable.
4. Big shots – The Spirit Filled church will never be a platform for those desiring to be popular. They need to die to themselves for the Holy Spirit to work in them. They will be rather uncomfortable if the Holy Spirit takes over.
5. Those who confuse worship with entertainment. Worship is not for our pleasure but for the glory of God. Spirit-filled worship will make some people mighty uncomfortable in some churches today.
6. Cultural Christians – those who come to church to better themselves, upgrade their life status or business, meet the right partner. These people have a very different agenda than that of the Holy Spirit.

Who is this man – Jesus (A poem)

Who is this man – Jesus?

No other teacher has ever said;
“Before Abraham was I AM.”*
Nor has anyone dared to say,
“I and My Father are One.”*

“I am the way, the truth and the life”;*
Such absolute conviction.
“I go and prepare a place for you”;*
He promises with affection.

The seventy said, “even the demons,
Are subject to us in Your name;
Jesus said “I beheld Satan –
Fall like lightning from heaven.”*

Such lofty words spoken;
With authority, might and power.
Who is this man – Jesus?
Does not your heart inquire?

* John 8:58, 10:30, 14:6, 14:3, Luke 10:18.

Science and Bible

Three examples where Bible verses are proved by science (compiled from Fight the Good Fight of the Faith FB page).

1. Agnostic polymath Herbert Spencer – the single most famous European intellectual in the closing decades of the nineteenth century, discovered that time, force, action, space, and matter are the five manifestations of all scientific phenomena. Millenia ago, God gives us this information in the first sentence of Scripture:

Genesis 1:1
In the beginning – time
God – force
Created – action
Heaven – space
And earth – matter.

God uses even those who reject Him to bring about proof of His truth into the world.
Who reads Spencer now? But the Holy Bible brings wisdom to 2.3 billion people today.

2. Life Blood

Circa. 1620, William Harvey discovered systemic circulation and properties of blood and that biological “life” is maintained by the blood.

Apprx. 3300 years ago, in the 3rd book of the Old Testament- Leviticus, God reveals this fact to Moses :

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood…(Lev.17:11).

Praise God!

For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
Proverbs 2:6

3. When man had never even dreamed of DNA:

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
Psalms 139:13-16

What happened to Saul?

Saul stood by when they killed Stephen. Saul, breathing threats and murder against the Lord’s disciples, was out to hunt them down. On the way, a brilliant light knocked him off his horse and blinded him. The ground-breaking conversation ensued:
The Voice said ” Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
Saul asked, “Who are You, Lord?”
The Voice answered “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”

When Ananias laid hands on Saul and said “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit..” Saul got his sight back, got baptized and didn’t waste time – he preached the Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God.

The dismay and astonishment at this transformation – can you imagine? Saul confounded his former mentors and peers and went about proving that Jesus is the Christ.

What happened to Saul can happen to you. Are you on an agenda to mock Jesus? Disprove Jesus and His gospel? Place Jesus among “ascended masters”? Watch out – God can easily knock you down from your high horse and use you for the glory of God’s Kingdom.

If what happened to Saul happens to you, don’t worry – it is not such a bad thing. The smart thing to do would be to turn to Christ before you are pushed off the horse!

When I am weak, then I am strong

DOES God “test”us?

Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. – Deuteronomy 8:2

David sought God’s testing asking Him to examine his heart and mind and see that they are true to Him:

Test me, Lord, and try me,
examine my heart and my mind; – Psalms 26:2

Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts. – Psalms 139:23

Abraham was tested to see if he would obey. The result – to show that he IS the father of the faith!

Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. – Romans 4:16
By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, – Hebrews 11:17

In both the Old and New Testaments, the translated meaning of the word “test” is – to prove by trial.

God needs no proof. But we need to know with confidence that our faith is real – that no trial will overcome our faith.

Jesus talks about this in the parable of the sower. As soon as testing comes along, some who have received the Word in joy, fall away.

This leads me to believe some testing comes from the Lord – because its purpose is to build up faith in the believers. This is why James is saying:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, – James 1:2

Testing comes in many ways :

1. Small daily irritations – annoying habits of people you live with, unruly kids, noisy neighbors, gossip at work, etc.
2. Severe afflictions –

See, I have refined you, though not as silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.- Isaiah 48:10

3. Attacks from Satan –

So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. – Job 2:7

Job’s story is proof that Satan’s evil work in us is limited by God’s sovereign control. Our trials work toward God’s perfect purpose – many instances talk about how God will discipline His children.

Testing is of great benefit to the believers.

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. – 1 Peter 1:6-7

We are more than conquerors through Him in all these things – not in spite of trouble, but because of it. Paul says he is exceedingly joyful in all tribulations. Oswald Chambers says: Undaunted radiance is not built on anything passing, but on the love of God that nothing can alter.

God does not keep us away from trouble. Instead He says He will be with us in trouble. Paul is not talking about imaginary things when he says “we are more than conquerors in all these things”. They are real things. Actual life issues. We are living that experience right now in our Christian life. But as believers, we are victorious always, not because of our own prowess, but because of our relationship with Christ. Isn’t it a sad thing when a Christian says he wishes something unsavory in his circumstances not to be there?

God’s power is made perfect in our weakness.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 2 Corinthians 12:9

Tribulation, anguish, famine – can they separate us from the love of God? Never.

Oswald Chambers says : “..some extraordinary thing happens to a man who holds on to the love of God when the odds are against God’s character. Logic is silenced in the face of every one of these things. Only one thing can account for it – the Love of God in Christ.

Out of the wreck I rise.

Big Bad Wolf

The deception of the Galatians

Paul is brokenhearted. The Galatians have risen up against him with false charges.

IF a teacher addresses the pupils with mildness even when they need severity, he is not their teacher, but their corrupter and enemy.

Our Lord shows us by example what is perfect teaching when He having said to Peter, Blessed are you Simon Barjona, (Matthew 16:17) and having promised to lay the foundation of the Church upon him, shortly afterwards rebukes Peter, Get behind Me, Satan: you are a stumbling block unto Me. (Matthew 16:23). On another occasion, Jesus shows exasperation in Matthew 15:16 – Are you even yet without understanding? And then again, inspires awe in the disciples when they see Him talking to the Samaritan woman. The disciples knew that Jesus was aware they had gone to get food, so why was He talking to this woman (was it for refreshment? Even though He knew it was coming?) No one dared to ask Him the question. (John 4:27)

Having been thus taught, Paul is walking in the steps of his Master and is varying his discourse according to the need of his disciples. O foolish Galatians. (Galatians 3:1) – not once, but twice, towards the end when he says reproachfully, Let no man trouble me (Galatians 6:17). He soothes them again with My little children, of whom I am again in travail (Galatians 4:19).

This whole Epistle breathes indignation. Why is Paul so angry with his disciples in Galatia? To be exasperated in common matters is just small-minded and morose. Paul is not such a man. What offense has roused his anger so much? They have done something so terrible which was estranging them from Christ.

This is what happened:

Some Jewish believers came to the Galatians desiring to be held in high esteem as teachers of the new faith. They had not let go of their Judaism customs. They taught the Galatians the observance if circumcision, sabbaths and new-moons. They lied to the Galatians that these were necessary and Paul should not be believed because even Peter, James and John did not forbid the customs. Now in fact, they did not forbid the customs because it is part of true doctrine, but only in condescension to the weakness of the Jewish believers. However, Paul had absolutely no requirement to act the same when preaching to the Gentiles. But when he was in Judæa (among the Jews) he employed the same preaching as Peter, James and john.

The deceivers of the Galatians withheld the causes of the Apostles’ varying teachings and misled the simpler believers. They charged that Paul preached one thing to the Jews and another to the Gentiles. Paul saw the attack against the Galatian Church. Filled with just anger and despondency, – I could wish to be present with you now, and to change my voice (Galatians 4:20) he writes the Epistle as an answer to these charges.

(Summarized from a homily by St. John Chrysostom)

Reflections:

The deceivers of today are no different.

1. They wait until the teacher of truth is absent / sneak in through the back door.
2. They bring in unsubstantiated claims. Believers without knowledge of the Word are none the wiser. Bringing to mind the Scripture – my people are destroyed due to lack of knowledge.
3. They attack the simpler believers first – drawing them out of their fellowship and church and building up a congregation for themselves.
4. They bring the teacher of truth to ill-repute.
5. They love praise!

In the perceived absence of Christ, many wolves have worn sheep’s clothing. Deceiving the believers, and destroying the faith of the simple.

It is no longer enough to have a “simple faith” as it was understood years ago. Our faith needs to be rock-solid. Unshakable rooted in the Word. It is no longer enough to just teach parables to our kids. Our kids need deeper lessons in faith and apologetics. We can send them to Sunday School and sing hymns and pray at home, but without knowledge they will not withstand the big bad wolf of deception when they go on to University or move out of home.

Legion and I

Gerasene Demoniac

 

John’s gospel ends with: 

Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I

suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

 

Why are some stories included the Scriptures and not others? The story of the Gerasene demoniac seems to span the whole life process of a child of God.

 

1. The man was possessed by many demons – Legion.

Are we not seeing the many demons of alcoholism, sex, drugs, pornography, idolatry possessing us? We are attacked by the lying and murderous spirit all the time. As long as we are a slave to our sinful nature, we live in blind subjection to evil.

 

2. He lived in the tombs.

Just like us when we didn’t know Christ. We were like “whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.” (Matthew 23:27)

 

3. He was strong – no one could restrain him even with a chain.

Today, evil is stronger than ever before. To conquer, you need to make friends first. So it is with evil. We fall with subtle deception – a little bit of false doctrine or a little bit of alcohol to keep yourself healthy. No harm done. Satan has patience. over the years, we are hopelessly addicted to evil practices inviting demons to run our lives believing it is the Holy Spirit. The strength of evil is strong within us that we cannot comprehend the gospel – Christ and Him crucified, anymore. We think its old news – now the Holy Spirit is working in a new way and we like it. We experience God – do you? We have the gifts – do you? We have the numbers – do you? 

Here is the most terrifying verse of the Bible:

2 Thessalonians 10-12

………..They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that they will all be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

We are truly done for when God Himself allows us to be deceived.

This is how strong evil can get in our lives. Evil makes us blind to the truth. The truth becomes offensive, uncool, burdensome, not seeker-friendly, gloomy, pauper gospel and out-of-date.

4. He would cut himself with stones

The man was bleeding all over. We are familiar with the horror stories of people on certain drugs wanting to hurt themselves. This spirit drives you to hurt yourself and eventually kill yourself. The pain becomes a pleasure.

5. The demons who were possessing the man recognized Jesus as Son of the Most High

We, in all our sinfulness, recognize Jesus. But we want nothing to do with Him because our sins will emerge into the light as soon as we surrender to Him. We don’t want that – we love our sin. We are not yet ready to give up on it. It gives us pleasure. What else is life for? Recognizing God is unavoidable. But we are quite capable of searing our conscience to such a degree that we come to a stage of not recognizing our Creator. We see these people all the time, who say there is no God. For them, a terrible destiny awaits truly without God.

6. The demoniac asks to be sent to the pigs = prays to God to be sent to the herd of pigs.

At the feet of the Lord, the demoniac prays – not for forgiveness, but to be sent off to the pigs. We do this all the time, when we have not the spirit of God. We believe we are Christian, but we want to dwell in the world with the Prince of the world. We pray to God for money, jobs, wealth and all material things instead of heavenly things. We love the uncleanness of the world and detest the heavenly blessings that are promised to us as said in Ephesians 1:3.

7. Jesus answers the prayer of the demoniac!

Beware! God might answer your prayer too. And if we are persistent enough, He does answer. The unsaved will ask for the things of the devil and they just might get it. The saved – having the mind of Christ, will only ask for what they ought.

8. The man comes to his right mind and is clothed.

Releasing the powers that bind us give us freedom and our right mind back to us. Not only that, when we are saved, the mind of Christ is given to us and we are clothed in the fruit of the Spirit – Gentleness, kindness, self-control, joy and love.

9. The people of the town ask Jesus to leave = pray to God to leave them alone.

Losing about two thousand swine must have been an economical catastrophe for the owners. They would have been afraid of what else they might lose! No one cared about the deliverance of the man. Isn’t this why we don’t open our heart’s door to Jesus? We stand to lose the world and the world means more to us than eternal salvation. We are asked to carry our cross and follow Jesus. We cannot hold on to our old way of living. It is dead. But who can make the change? So instead of inviting Jesus in, we convince ourselves that we need to balance our lives, we simply cannot afford this religious nonsense at this time. We have jobs to do, children to raise, deadlines to meet, holidays to take, homes to build.

10. Jesus answers the prayer of the townspeople!

We see clearly free-will at work. Jesus does not enter into our hearts by force. He stands and knocks, and will enter only if the door is opened. One day, it will be too late because we will not hear Him anymore. So here is Paul’s message :

Hebrews 3:7 – So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…v.13 -…as long as it is called “Today”, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

11. The man who was demon-possessed begs to be with Jesus = yet another prayer to God in this story.

When we are saved, we experience true zeal for the Lord. Out of sheer gratefulness and love for the Lord, we want to immediately  get into ministry. Sometimes, our zeal leads us into a ministry that requires knowledge of the Word. It is a real danger when zeal goes before knowledge. Once saved, some are given the gift of teaching. It is important that we all spend time learning the Word with the guidance of the Holy Spirit before we embark on our ministry of teaching or evangelizing.

12. Jesus answers the prayer / request of the man by giving him a more suitable answer than that which he asks for.

Jesus has called all believers to be witnesses – not attorneys. A witness tells the story as he saw it. The man has to go back home and tell everyone what happened and how the Lord had compassion on him.

13. The man witnesses for Jesus in Decapolis.

We are to do the same. We cannot keep the knowledge of how our salvation came about a secret. We are propelled by the love of God to go and tell. We are to tell our story to the glory of God who saved us.

And…..if you have no compulsion to witness, it is a good time to ask yourself, “am I really saved?”

 

 

 

 

Conceited little brat

Have you come across a somebody who has said something like, “I have a bad temper, I can’t help it. My staff knows it and my wife (or husband) knows it, and they know better than to go anywhere near the triggers.” This kind of information is usually transmitted with a chest puffed up and shoulders drawn back. Proudly.

What is the true evil here? Is it the bad temper? Hardly. It is pride.

Pride tops the chart of all evils – anger, drunkenness, greed, vanity, covetousness. These are just “flea bites” in comparison, according to C S Lewis. He says it was through pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.

It is the easiest thing to figure out how proud you are.

Try to evaluate your feelings in the below situations:

The boss asks for your opinion (making you feel good to be the chosen one) and when it is given, he dismisses it as irrelevant or nonsensical in front of your colleagues. Rage? Humiliation?

You walk in to a party with a friend and the host welcomes the friend but fails to acknowledge you. Worse, the host takes your friend away and introduces him to others leaving you to fend for yourself. Embarrassed? Feeling small?

How about when in the company of friends, one of them starts to show-off – brag about the cruise, the new car or starts name-dropping. Utter dislike? Bad taste in your mouth?

Aren’t some people just annoying? You want to slap them and put them in their place. Oh! the fantastic scenarios you are cooking up in your head to teach that conceited little brat a good lesson. So satisfying.

I think you get the point. All of the above confirms we are prideful. We pray to God to make us humble, but we cannot stand being snubbed, patronized, belittled.

As new believers, we fall frequently but we get up again. Some realize the triggers and stay well away from those situations. These people take the long long road home. Hiding away in your prayer closet is not going to get you the skills to fight the good fight. The Holy Spirit will fix you to finally resemble the image of Christ – but you need to let God. The end game is to ‘I decrease and Christ increases’. How do we become humble if we are not in the thick of things?

Let’s say you have finally arrived at some level of humility – at least when dealing with the outside world. Now you have a very calm and humble demeanor and you speak gently and lovingly – all the right out-ward traits of a Christian. You take your seat at the back, inconvenience yourself to help others, build up a lovely reputation as being a Godly person, determine to turn the other cheek whilst hoping the situation will not arise.

And now creeps in spiritual pride.

You know the Bible and think you know better than the speaker. Nevertheless you sit demurely at the back with your Bible open and listen attentively.

You have a gift of speaking in tongues and is ecstatic when asked to pray in tongues at the Wednesday small group meeting.

People seek you out for prayers because it is known that most of your prayers are answered.

Your first love – Jesus, fades away to welcome a new god – spirituality.

If we lose our focus on Jesus, we are in trouble. Pride will lead us not so much to the secular scenarios mentioned at the beginning of this article, but it will surely lead us astray into false doctrine. Pride will make you open up to strange teachings, and you will see what is not there to see. Because at this stage of our spiritual journey, we are established in reputation among the flock. It is not easy to admit we were led astray.

For those who have fallen into this spiritual pride, let me share an interpretation of Proverbs 6:1-5 given by one of the early church fathers living in the Egyptian desert.

“If you have invested in false doctrine and have spread it publicly, you have been trapped by what you said.

Free yourself by meditating to God without rest that you may be awakened from the delusion. The intensity of your meditation will not escape the attention of the Lord (Intense – Allow no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids).”

Oswald Chambers speaks of another kind of pride. He says that we will become stagnant in our Spiritual lives when we decide to bear it all by ourselves. We cannot. When we obey God, others are affected. What are we to do? Become the martyr and say that you will not hurt the others in your quest to obey God? Not upset the family or friends or hurt their feelings? If we take this road, we will have some relief, but we will bring grief to God. We need to trust God to take care of the consequences. Oswald Chambers further says:

“Beware of the inclination to dictate to God as to what you will allow to happen if you obey Him.”

Child of God, really??

WE know we had the experience. But was that just euphoria or real saving grace? Am I really saved ? Here are some points to ponder:

Romans 8:13 – For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

verse 14 – For as many are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.

Are you led by the Spirit? Does that mean you are led to marry the right person? Led by the Spirit to get the right job? The perfect house? Are you led to the right church?

I don’t believe this is what Paul is saying – verse 14, begins with “For” which is pointing us to the previous verse to clarify that if we are led by the Spirit, we put to death the deeds of the body.

Trouble in paradise?

Still watch porn, speak filthy language, look with lust at fellow workers at office? These are some of the deeds of the body. I am sure we can all think of more deeds of the body than this list.

If you are still enjoying the deeds of the body, chances are your “born-again” experience may not be authentic. The Spiritual work of regeneration makes you a new man. Old man died. Repentance brings you face-to-face with your past sinfulness. How then, can you keep living in the same life of sin? I agree, you can and will be tempted. You will fall. But as you journey on, these instances become few and far between and each time you are so sorrowful that you cannot have peace until you have fully repented. You feel terrible that you have grieved the Holy Spirit that dwells in you.

As a child of God, you will make war on sin – your own sin. Your will is to emerge victorious.

Also, when we can cry out ” Abba, Father” the Holy Spirit will bear witness with our spirit that we are children of God as explained in Romans 8:15-16.

You could say that anyone can say “Abba, Father”. But the Holy Spirit knows our hearts – do we mean it with all our hearts? Imagine the prodigal son coming home. When he sees his dad running down the path, he must have expected rebuke..surely not the loving embrace of dad? The unfathomable relief of receiving this love leading to the repentance of the son is what produces “Abba, Father” in us. It is this endearing word that should come to each believer when we seek the Father. “Daddy, I am sorry…Dad, I love you. Help me Dad.”

When we “cry out” in v 15., it doesn’t mean “say”. Crying out happens only from the bottom of our hearts at the point of total abandon.

If you have doubts about your salvation, its time to act. Repent and be saved.

And those who are saved and therefore are the children of God –

…exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. – Hebrews 3:13.

Go and make disciples

‘SAVED’ anew and in a mighty hurry to get going. We study the Word and the doctrines of the faith. We study the issues that divide and pick our side – Calvinism or Arminianism? We listen to youtube preachers and carefully sieve out who is true to the Word and who is not. Once discerned, we follow our guy on social media and gather more knowledge. Then we go to church and start dissecting each word of the Pastor according to our new-found knowledge. Hmm…they really don’t measure up, do they? It is only the thought of gratitude of being saved that keeps you from bashing the sermon as soon as you walk out of the service. You remember the time before “salvation” when you just let out your opinion without any reservation to anyone who would lend a sympathetic ear. At least now, you will keep your mouth shut, but in your heart, feel so elevated because now you know better than everybody else. Your heart gives a joyful leap at your new wisdom compared to the stupidity of the rest. And because you need to feel charitable, you feel pity for their ignorance and their obvious “un-saved” status. No wonder Billy Graham advised new believers to ‘take time’ before launching out.

But we want to make disciples.

Here is some good advise from Oswald Chambers –

Don’t get impatient, remember how God dealt with you – with patience and with gentleness; but never water down the truth of God. Let it have its way and never apologize for it. Jesus said,”Go and make disciples,” not “make converts to your opinion.”

So what are we to do? We have to learn to stay put until we realize with all our hearts and minds, that we had no contribution in our salvation. It was the work of God. He called, we answered. He justified and we were saved for all eternity. The Holy Spirit works in us to perfect us into the image of Christ. We have to allow the Holy Spirit to do this work. We interrupt this work when we try to push our own way – maybe out of pride, maybe out of our zeal, nevertheless, we want our ideas to take precedence. The indwelling Holy Spirit is grieved. But through this cycle of error and repentance, God works in us to fulfill His purpose.

Finally we see the faint light of where He is leading us. A huge sigh of relief as we realize God did not forget us nor ignore us. But was slowly molding us according to the vessel that He wanted to use for His glory. He knows when we are ready. He knows when our ego is subdued through the trials that He allowed us to go through. He knows when we have surrendered our will 100%. He knows when Christ is glorified in us. Now we ‘go make disciples’ and bear much fruit.

When we go out, what is our prime concern – it’s not to get others to believe this doctrine and that theory. It’s not to get others to believe the Bible. But we are to project Jesus – who is revealed in the Bible. Our opinions are not important, but rather, do we project Jesus? If we are upheld by the Spirit of God and we have glorified Christ in our lives, it is natural that we project Jesus. And what happens then :

“Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You.” – Psalms 51:13

Converted – not saved. We can never think for a moment that we have any part in the “saving” of a soul. That belongs to God and God alone. Our job is :

“To open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.” – Acts 26:18

Conversion is not regeneration. Most of us “Christians” are converted. We see the light. But we have not received anything from God. A “born-again” person knows when he or she has received something from God. That persons knows it is wholly from God. It is a total spiritual experience. It cannot be learned or understood by reading the Bible. According to Oswald Chambers, salvation means that we are brought to the place where we are able to receive something from God on the authority of Jesus Christ, viz., remission of sins.

So now we know our job when Jesus told us “Go and make disciples.”

How?

We do need knowledge of the Word and we do need to learn how to defend our faith to unbelievers. We also need humility to be able to understand and respect the other person’s faith in his own religion.

Ravi Zacharias has given a wonderful illustration – If you attack another person’s faith, there will be no possibility for you to introduce Jesus to that person. He would have already shut-down. Its like if you cut off a person’s nose, there is no point offering him a rose to smell.

What are the occupational hazards of making disciples?

We love spiritual success.

Jesus told us not to rejoice at spiritual success (Luke 10:22) but this is what we do. We forget that God’s foundation of grace has been laid, and grace has made it possible for us to convert hearts. He made it possible. It is God who justifies and sanctifies. One saved life is more valuable that a hundred converted. So we nourish the sheep in the knowledge of the Lord in total obedience to Christ.

Bonhoeffer says the road to faith begins with this real and tangible step of obedience. In other words, being a disciple of Jesus doesn’t mean simply agreeing with Jesus or even heading in the same general direction as Jesus. It’s sort of like this: You can agree smoking is hazardous to your health, but it means nothing until you stop smoking.

Let’s go and make disciples – not by asking them to sign a contract to agree in principle. But by asking them to die.

Colossians 3:3 – For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.