Called and Equipped to Lay Our Lives Down

Called and Equipped to Lay Our Lives Down                     

There was a word from the Lord given to a priest in Tanzania several years ago. It was a word of rebuke from the Lord. This word was confirmed by all the leadership of all the Christian denominations in Tanzania. The Lord said that His church was not using the gifts he had given to it to do the work of ministry.

Some were using only one, maybe two, but others were ignoring God's gifts of the Spirit. Persecution was going to come so that the church would see clearly its need for all God had provided.

The Lord speaks in Joel 2:23-32 that He will pour out His Spirit on all people, young and old, male and female and that they will receive dreams from Him, prophetic word to speak from Him. They would receive power from on High to do the work of God's Kingdom.

The work of God can only be done by the power of God. We are not sufficient in ourselves to think of anything as "coming from ourselves". Jesus Christ is our sufficiency. God would not pour out His Spirit on the church in power as He did on Pentecost IF the church did not need this anointing to live and continue to do the ministry of Jesus.

Peter quotes the Joel passage on the Day of Pentecost. It came to pass. It is here. It is necessary if we are to really follow Jesus. The Lord would not pour out the power of the Holy Spirit on His church IF we did not need all He had to give to be effective in His Kingdom's mission.

God does not give superfluously. He gives with purpose and expects us to join with Him, to receive all He has to give in order to do all He will ask us to cooperate with Him in.

When Jesus rescues a person and makes of them a son or daughter of God, He gives each believer a spiritual gift (Romans 12:6-8). That gift, as we yield to the Holy Spirit and are clothed with power from on High, provides a foundationary motivation, a sense of meaning and purpose in our lives as we follow Jesus. Being gifted and empowered by God, we can begin to function in ministry (partial list in Ephesians 4:11-13 & 1 Peter 4:10-11) with the expectation that the Holy Spirit WILL manifest Himself through us (1 Corinthians 12:7-11) to meet the ministry need at hand.

We see all these things manifested in the life and earthly ministry of Jesus. The mission and ministry that the church has been given is nothing less than the ministry and mission of Jesus. He meant it when He said, "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." (John 20:21) Our call to mission and ministry has everything to do with Jesus. It is not about us, or making a "name" for ourselves. It is about Jesus becoming known through the lives we live and the grace He extends through us in the Holy Spirit's power. We have nothing to boast in, but everything to rejoice in.

The Pharisee in Luke 18:9-14 didn’t believe he needed anything from God. In fact, he was boasting about how much God should be really pleased with His performance. He is a clear example of the church of the Laodiceans in Revelation 3:17-22. They felt they needed nothing from the Lord. They were just fine, thank you.

Much of the church, especially in the West has this notion that because we have the Canon of Scripture and can prove from it that Jesus is who He said He is, that we can do kingdom work.

The disciples after that first Easter evening had all that insight. Jesus had opened their minds to understand EVERYTHING written about Him in the Law, Psalms and Prophets. But He told them to WAIT in Jerusalem until they were clothed with power from on High. They were to receive the same anointing for ministry that Jesus had at the Jordan River. The work of God can ONLY be done in the power of God with the gifts He provides. It is not by human might, human intellect or human resources that the Kingdom of God is made manifest!

We need everything Jesus has provided. Otherwise WE begin to take credit and WE take the glory to ourselves/denomination that belong to God alone. To deny yourself, you must rely on Another. You will never be your own salvation, rescue or life- transformer. You have to deny the satanic lie that you can any part in your salvation! To die to self, you must live in the Power of the Resurrection. Only by the Holy Spirit’s power can you stop trying to draw life giving from a broken cistern and drink from a river of Living Water

To lay your life down, you must live the Life God gives you. God replaces your death with His life. He baptizes you in the Holy Spirit so you have the power to follow Jesus in true humility.

Jesus drew His identity and worth solely from His Father, not from the responses or reactions of others around Him. He knew who He was because His Father told Him. God has told you who have put your trust and faith in Jesus Christ that you are His heirs; that you are joint heirs of Jesus and that He intends to live through you as He did through Jesus.

Can you do that apart from what God provides? Unequivocally NO! Do you need His power, His gifts, His anointing, and the manifestations of the Holy Spirit? Unequivocally YES!

So…what will you? Will you admit the truth that you need all that the Lord has provided for you to REALLY LIVE the life He has given you? Will you humble yourself? Will you answer the door…Jesus is knocking, ready to come fill you with His fullness and power so that you might live in humility and truth!

The church in Tanzania, Africa has been going through the fire of persecution and all who serve the Lord, regardless of denomination, are marked men and women by the radical Islamists in the country. Many churches have been burned and there has been much suffering...and the church's love for Jesus is burning white-hot and they do not love their lives but are willing to lay them down for the Name of Jesus and the sake of His Kingdom.

There was a word from the Lord given to a priest in Tanzania several years ago. It was a word of rebuke from the Lord. This word was confirmed by all the leadership of all the Christian denominations in Tanzania. The Lord said that His church was not using the gifts he had given to it to do the work of ministry. Some were using only one, maybe two, but others were ignoring God's gifts of the Spirit. Persecution was going to come so that the church would see clearly its need for all God had provided.

The Lord speaks through the Prophet Joel (Joel 2:23-32) that He will pour out His Spirit on all people, young and old, male and female and that they will receive dreams from Him, prophetic word to speak from Him. They would receive power from on High to to the work of God's Kingdom.

The work of God can only be done by the power of God. We are not sufficient in ourselves to think of anything as "coming from ourselves". Jesus Christ is our sufficiency. God would not pour out His Spirit on the church in power as He did on Pentecost IF the church did not need this anointing to live and continue to do the ministry of Jesus. Peter quotes the Joel passage on the Day of Pentecost. It came to pass. It is here. It is necessary if we are to really follow Jesus.

The Lord would not pour out the power of the Holy Spirit on His church IF we did not need all He had to give to be effective in His Kingdom's mission. God does not give superfluously. He gives with purpose and expects us to join with Him, to receive all He has to give in order to do all He will ask us to cooperate with Him in.

When Jesus rescues a person and makes of them a son or daughter of God, He gives each believer a spiritual gift (Romans 12:6-8). That gift, as we yield to the Holy Spirit and are clothed with power from on High, provides a foundationary motivation, a sense of meaning and purpose in our lives as we follow Jesus.

Being gifted and empowered by God, we can begin to function in ministry (partial list in Ephesians 4:11-13 & 1 Peter 4:10-11)with the expectation that the Holy Spirit WILL manifest Himself through us (1 Corinthians 12:7-11) to meet the ministry need at hand. We see all these things manifested in the life and earthly ministry of Jesus. The mission and ministry that the church has been given is nothing less than the ministry and mission of Jesus. he meant it when He said, "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." (John 20:21)

Our call to mission and ministry has everything to do with Jesus. It is not about us, or making a "name" for ourselves. It is about Jesus becoming known through the lives we live and the grace He extends through us in the Holy Spirit's power. We have nothing to boast in, but everything to rejoice in.

Years ago I Yolie & I drew up a "Last Will and Testament". It needs to be updated since our son is now an adult, but it was pretty simple. If I die first, Yolie gets everything and then when she dies, John-Mark gets the whole enchilada. It also was written in the reverse. If we both died at the same time, our son inherited all we have.

The thing about a will it that is only goes into effect after the "will-maker" takes their last earth-breath. One has to die to bring the will "to life" for all those who are listed as heirs.

We separate the Bible into two sections. One is called the Old Testament and the other is called the New Testament. Actually, it is a seamless text, God's Word recorded through human history revealing His nature, His purpose and His will to all humanity. In 2 Corinthians 1:20, St. Paul states that ALL the promises of God, His revealed will, are "Yes!" in Jesus Christ. The full Will of God is found in Jesus.

To bring to "life" all the promises made in the "Will of God", Jesus had to taste death for the whole human race. He had to bear in His own human body on the cross the full weight of the sin of all people, for all time. He experience the complete and just wrath of God against sin seeing it as only God can and experiencing it's utter desolation as only God could...in His real, physical body...with His real human emotions...with His real human mind. He had to die for us so that the Will of God would go into effect for everyone who would simply believe Him, receive Him and follow Him.

When I die, my will will go into effect, but my family cannot expect anything else from me. My physical being will have ceased to effectively function in any way as far as the day-to-day world is concerned. I'll be dead. No one will be able to count on me again. My effectiveness as far as anyone here on earth is concerned will have come to an end. 

Not so with Jesus...I know that MY redeemer lives! The One who died for me conquered death and was raised from the dead to live forever. He tasted death once and for all...for all.  Death can no longer exert any control over Him. He has vanquished death. He lives eternally now, Jesus Christ, in His Resurrected Body.

He is the ONLY "will-maker" who ever lives to bring to bear all the promises of God's Eternal Will in the lives of those who become heirs of God, joint heirs with Him by grace through faith. Our God is the Living God. We do not serve and follow a mere memory. We serve a Living Savior.

He is in the world today. He lives His very life in you, Christian. It is His will that where you go, His kingdom, His rule authority, truth, blessing and work continue...through you! If you belong to Jesus Christ, eternal live is already at work in you. It is transforming you day by day. From the inside out the Holy Spirit is working to reproduce in you the life, character and nature of Jesus Christ. THAT is your heritage. Having begun a good work in you, He will bring that work to completion.

We live in a world that has become more and more profoundly blind because they have refused to love the truth: they need rescuing and God has already done the rescuing to be received as a gift. It you are not hungry, you will nor seek food. If you are not thirsty, you will not seek water. The world is full of people ripe for deception. They believe they are OK...good people...at least they have people they have graded as worse than they perceive themselves.

They do not really know that God is the living God, active, merciful, forgiving, just and loving. How in the world will they ever come to get a glimpse at the eternal wonder of our God? I'm glad you asked the question. The answer God has for them is meant to be lived out through you. To hear about God's love through you, to see the life of God being lived through you, to be able to examine over time the reality that, "DANG! IT'S TRUE!" and to touch the reality of the Living God in you...that is their hope. God lives through you and He draws them to Himself through you.

They will see that God does love imperfect folk, does forgive to the uttermost and does care intimately and specifically because they will see it in you as you follow Jesus. Jesus is going to live His life in His power in His authenticity and winsomeness THROUGH YOU!!!

There is no part of the Will of God that you are left out of. The One who dies to bring that Will to life, ever lives and He is living in you by the very power that raise Him from the dead. THAT is the ground of our hope. I know that my Redeemer lives and that at the last day he will stand upon the earth and my own eyes shall see Him and I will know Him...He will be no stranger to me!