Showing posts with label Ephesians 4:14-16. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ephesians 4:14-16. Show all posts

Wednesday, 13 February 2013

Here I am - Send me by Rich Novek

HERE AM I, SEND ME!

Woe is me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And I said, “HERE AM I, SEND ME!” He said, “Go and tell this people: “‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” Isaiah 6:5-10

At some point someone is going to have to go through the fire in order to blaze the trail for those who are still stuck in the lie of performance based Christianity.

Isaiah had already been prepared for this amazing call. He was broken before the Lord, open and laid bare, letting God know his weaknesses. And did that deter God at all, even for one second? It was before his call that the angel introduced the pain of the hot coal to Isaiah’s lips. Then take a look at his ministry once he accepted the call. It sure wasn’t what we call ministry today; he wasn’t flying around the world, delivering a watered down version of the Good News, while at the same time lining his pockets and saving his own life…was he?

No! His call was to go out and speak to a people who would not listen, and to cause their hearts to become hardened toward God, so there might also be a chance of brokenness and real repentance.

When God looked around and asked the above question, he wasn’t looking for the strongest, smartest, or the richest, He was looking for someone who would answer the call, and from that point He would take care of the rest. Isaiah answered the call by faith, not knowing what was ahead. God chose the lowly one, the man of unclean lips to change the face of history.

When Jesus stood up in the synagogue for the first time, it was this same “unclean and undone” Isaiah who he quoted.

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn. Isaiah 61:1-2

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him. It is because of Him that you are IN Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast IN the Lord. I Corinthians 1:26-31

Jesus Christ never took one thought for Himself, yet today most believers live everyday consumed with their own life, while immersed in a self-consumed culture where self-preservation is the norm…

And it is no different for the body of Christ.

Our only purpose for us as the ones who are the called according to His purpose, is to walk above our High Places by the power of the One who is NOW willing and working His perfect plan IN and through us, for His Glory.

As we walk yielded to Him he does His own good work IN us. And how does that happen? How does a so called Christian culture that is focused on saving itself make the transition to losing itself for the sake of the Gospel of Grace?

Only One WAY!

Your ears will hear a word behind you, "This is the way, walk in it," whenever you turn to the right or to the left. Isaiah 30:21

The only “WAY” that God will ever direct us is to THE WAY, TRUTH, and LIFE, whose is name is Jesus Christ. And any other way, religion, philosophy, tradition, rule, or law is the wrong way. The only Way is in embracing the “losing to gain” message of the Cross, and allowing God to complete the good work He has begun IN us. It is allowing death to roll in on anything and everything we are still trusting in as our life, and believing only God can work IN us so that His Life can work IN us...for others.

For it is God which worketh IN you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Philippians 2:13

It is His work IN us just as it is His plan for us!

I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels--a plentiful harvest of new lives. John 12:24 NLT

The “momentary light afflictions” that we endure in this life are what also prepare us to be the channel of His Love for others. This is why a life centered on "take not a thought for your life" is not only possible but also expected. This is where we move beyond the vain attempts of preserving our own life, and especially for those who have made the decision to forsake EVERYTHING for Christ alone!

These are the ones like Isaiah, who know before the call even comes the testing will. And unless God has a mature body of believers who are tested to the point they KNOW the One truth, there won’t be anyone who is fit to send.

Praise our God, all peoples, let the sound of His praise be heard; He has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping. For you, God, tested us; you refined us like silver. You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. You let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance. Psalm 66:8-12

This place of Abundance is Christ Himself, the One who is the ALL IN ALL who fills everything in every way.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth IN love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of Him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up IN Love, as each part does its work. Ephesians 4:14-16

Saturday, 9 February 2013

When you do what is truly best for you.....

When you do what is 'truly' best for YOU . . . it will naturally serve those around you! 'Happiness' Coach Carolee Dalton

Chris Welch writes on Facebook
This throws up some pretty deep thinking if you align this with this sentence:we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together [k]by what every joint supplies, according to the [l]proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.Ephesians 4
Let's zone in on "proper working of each individual part."
Judgment begins with the household of God. This means a lot more than broader sins.
I AM A PIANO TUNER and I begin with one string of one note, and work out to the rest of the piano.
God begins with His church. The administration He is rolling out Ephesians 1:10 begins in His household.
If He is rolling out an administration based on Galations 2:20, the new consciousness that He lives my life, it follows that we'd better find out a bit about how Jesus as Chris Welch,Jesus as Carolee Dalton best works. Now as a Life Coach Carolee Dalton is probably focussing on individuals finding how to maximise their own potential. What I'm suddenly seeing is bigger. You see if we're all nestled somewhere in some big Rothschild pyramid performing a function of his choosing rather than our own, even if we are Christians we are misusing ourselves. And the ones that hinders the most are those members of the Body of Christ we would have been helping to build up were we functioning "according to the proper working of each part." Let's scroll back inward to church.
If a pastor assumes scriptures say that the pastoral gift is one that is exercised as an administrative CEO of some local corporation known as the church, his eternal "megaphone role" out the front of church is actually preventing the proper working of each individual part. One pastor one church dates back to periods before anybody knew they were saved, baptised in the Spirit, and knowing Galations 2:20 in their own lives as the Father stage of growth. But that's just a preliminary criticism. St Paul was so far reaching as an apostle he didn't even see the Body in terms of meetings. in the Ephesians 4 passage it doesn't talk in terms of meetings. (it doesn't exclude them either)But it's speaking in terms of a whole manner of living on the earth.

Monday, 8 October 2012

The earth is Splitting Part 3 - A prophetic Word

REGROUPING 
Now is the time for you to regroup.
Go where you are received. It is important for you to do this now.

While you are growing and being established I place you with those who you would not choose to be with to extend you. This is as true in your years in your natural family, as in places of learning,schools and colleges, but there comes a time for you when you MUST be free to exercise who I have really made you.

 It is no honour to you or Me for you to persist in places where you cannot be yourself and who I made you. It is not noble to have your personality,calling, and gifting squashed by people who cannot expand to receive you as yourself.
Now is the time for you to learn a completely new order where you MUST learn who I am in you. I have prepared works for you to walk in from before the foundation of the world.

You Must now learn how my Body functions. This is NOT a sideshow. This is the main "SHOW" in the earth. What happens in my Body happens in the Earth. That which you release shall be released in heaven and earth. That which you bind shall be bound in heaven and on earth.
The Message Ephesians 4:14-16 reads: “No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything.”

As I said My Body is no sideshow. I insist on the proper functioning of My Body.
”speaking the truth in love, [j]we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together [k]by what every joint supplies, according to the [l]proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” Ephesians4:15-16
NASV
How can there be a proper functioning if each part is not properly received. My Body is a place where each says of the other “ Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord.”

I remove from you the burden and intercession for the places where you are not received. You are not to fear or be discouraged.

 I am Lord of My Church.

I send out workers and position people by My Spirit. Just as when you leave your natural family to go out into the world this does not mean you never see your family again. It does not mean all ties are broken. But what it means is that you seek out a place where you can be you and function in the way I have prepared for you. In the future when you return, everyone will relate to each other as mature individuals in My Son. To maintain false relationships is actually to hold a cork in a bottle. In the movement and the restructuring everyone will actually grow more, not less. I cannot bless flesh relationships and flesh structures. By letting them be revealed, you are actually doing no more than removing a plaster that has been too long on a wound, and healing actually accelerates with access to fresh air.

I call those who hear to a totally new order and a totally new realm of authority. For many years I have warned you from the prophets that I am doing a new thing and many of you have assumed I was talking about the movings of the Spirit to which now you have become accustomed. But now as a mother bird stirring up the nest, I seek to underline what I have said to you....New means New. No church anywhere at anytime has walked in the paths I am now leading you on. It really is an Unknown Way. But MY Spirit shall lead you into all truth, and many of these ways have been inert in your heart for years, and will only be confirmed by my future ways with you.

You have caught glimpses of what My Church is. You have tasted at large gatherings something of My true Church, but now I stress you will walk all the time as My Church in My Name. I separate you unto Me. I call You out unto Me.

You have heard My Son say the fields are white unto harvest but I would not allow you to go directly into the fields, but I gave you strict commandment to pray to the Father that He send out workers into the harvest. Even so as a first stage I send you now to each other and you will experience such an acceleration of growth that you will have liberty to share preach and teach the gospel as never before and with an authority that will grab attention.

Love can only flow among such a people that are released to be who they are. A people who are bottled up, afraid, unused, unreceived can never lavish abroad the majesty of my love one to another nor as overspill to a lovestarved world.
Chris Welch 6.10.12 UK