Life Does Not Rest Upon Mechanical Appointment

It's Out of Our Hands

The Lord does not leave it in our hands to appoint our ministers, to make either the ministry or the minister. The Lord develops ministry by life, and where the Lord develops ministry the Church has to take notice. It may be perfectly true that the appointment has been made by God, but it may be equally true that it has to be made manifest by life before it comes to function. I believe that is partly why Barnabas and Paul were detained at Antioch so long. Paul was definitely called, chosen. There was no doubt whatever that heaven had ordained him as an apostle, and all the signs of an apostle were in him, the supreme sign being that he had seen first hand the risen Lord. Yet, with the sovereign choice, and with the personal commission to him, he had first to go into Damascus to be told what he should do as one in the church, the assembly, and subsequently he had to tarry at Antioch as a member of the assembly there for over a year. Even then the Lord did not come to Saul or to Barnabas, his companion, and say, Now go out to the work to which you know I have called you, the work of which I have told you, the work for which you were chosen! Go out and get on with it! The Lord gave direction through the leading members of that assembly: "Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them". And the Church was able to do that, not simply on the basis of a command, but because it had been proved in their own midst that these men were called for this ministry. They had revealed in the assembly by life that they were called to a ministry. That is the way by which the Lord reveals His ministers.

That brings us to this point. You do not know what your ministry is, save as you go on with the Lord. You may have been Divinely ordained, sovereignly chosen. There may be related with your life a ministry of great value. You may not know anything about it yet, but it may be perfectly true that the Lord could say that you are a chosen vessel unto Him; but you will only discover what your ministry is as you go on with the Lord in life. As the Lord's life increases in you, and your communion with the Lord goes on unhindered in all its meaning and value, then you will discover that the Lord is moving in you in a certain direction, and that you are becoming exercised unto a certain ministry. None of us really discerns his ministry by being told beforehand. We only know it as we go on with God, and His life has its way.

That is an important thing, for ministry hangs upon life. It does not rest upon mechanical appointment. We cannot make ministers. It is only the risen Christ Who can make ministers, and He makes them in the power of His risen life. Disaster lies before the man who tries to be a minister without the risen life of Christ. The Lord deliver us from ever trying in any way to be ministers without its being the outcome of His life in us. The life of the risen Lord takes its own form, expresses itself in its own way, according to the mind of Him Whose life it is.

Rich

Assimilation or Celebration

To quote a friend, “I have become quite content with sharing Jesus and pointing others to Him right where I am in my little, unadvertised neck of the woods. Anything beyond that seems more intended to bring the focus to ME.”

Is it just another religious (grace) cause, crusade, we have been called to join, or is it rather that we through grace have become joined to Christ himself?
There is such an insatiable hunger and longing I detect in so many for real authentic community without the covert toxic additives of some man/woman’s (unbeknownst to them) desires to exploit them even further.
I love where Paul illustrates (in my opinion) this divisive maniacal undetected heart exploitation of men to make merchandise of those the Father has re-birthed.

“Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:”

In being detoxed from our own undetected leaven a whole new world of sobriety begins to cut through the religious malaise we use to accept as the norm. I can hear so clearly the voice of His spirit imploring me (us), to not become entangled all over again with that (or any) yoke of bondage again, so stand fast!

Is being Jesus to others right where we live enough or should we refuse to resist such a crazy notion and simply allow ourselves to be assimilated much like the Borg from the Start Trek series; "resistance is futile, you will be assimilated into the collective.”
Rather than celebrating our uniqueness in Christ and being Jesus to the others God places in our daily living, the charming incantations and potions (cunning craftiness) of men are once again being activated in the “grace awakening” bent on attempting to dupe the dopes into believing that by signing up, joining their own particular brand of Jesus Manifesto the world will stand up and take notice, but I want to ask, take notice of who?

Rich

Measuring Ourselves

I’m not trying to nail anything down here just thinking, but the stirring that is happening throughout the earth regarding the massive exodus from established expressions of religion and trying to launch something new is it because there was a knowing in measuring themselves they came up short?

If we have not grasped the truth of His love, life, in us as us, won’t it be the same old thing only wrapped up in a new set of duds? Who told you were naked in the first place?
The longing for God the Father that has been awakened in so many, wanting to gain a whole new dimension of closeness is not found in anything short of his spirit making known, revealing His heart for us!
It’s going to take whatever it takes to bring each and every person in this freshly awakened journey to come to the end of being sick and tired of swallowing a whole new batch of gos-pills marketed in an enticing format.

Rich

The Feat, His Divine Fiat

There is way too much to try and copy and paste here, so for those wanting to read (Keeping Christ In View) further, bon appetite.

These will be some more thoughts on what I shared earlier, also for those interested in another’s thoughts, Ruth over at Come Away My Beloved, has also shared some wonderful thoughts as well.

Here are a couple of quotes: There is everywhere today an immense amount of definite or tacit admission of the failure of Christianity; the asking of the question: 'What is wrong with Christianity or the "churches"?' The would-be doctors seeking to diagnose the malady and prescribe the remedy are a growing multitude. Not all are mistaken, and if we seem to have joined their ranks, we do not think that we are speculating when we assert that that which is preached and taught has become - although largely unwittingly - detached from the personal significance of Christ Himself. The business of the Church and its ministry is not to propagate a system of Christian truth, but to bring Christ Himself, in the power of the Holy Spirit, wherever it goes and is. The Gospel as such saves nobody. Salvation is a vital personal contact and union with Christ Himself. Hence, and this is the crucial point, Christ must have a living organism in which and by which to make that contact and that union.”

“Christianity has become something almost entirely apart from the Person of Christ. It is a religion, a system, a philosophy of life, a set of ways, practices, and ideas. It is something that people enter into, take up, join, and choose. They come to Christ through the Christian system, but the Christ they come to is a denominational, sectarian, ritualistic, or evangelical Christ. The Christ that they know and believe in is the Christ of this or that connection and interpretation. Christ rarely now creates Christianity; it is Christianity that creates Christ.”

Maybe as a wise master builder, the Apostle Paul was unwilling to deviate from the DNA design that constituted what His church was to BE? In other words, he didn’t resort to clowning or cloning around with that which was entrusted to him. You know, somebody who say is very skilled (talented) at painting assuming they can take one of the recognized great masters paintings and make it even better with the magical brush strokes.

Flesh and blood humanity has not evolved nor will it ever become a shinning pinnacle of man’s doings, never! And yet it is within man the miracle of the re-birthing is to be established.
Maybe that’s why Paul could see first hand out of having been translated (caught up) into the heavenly realms wherein it says ‘he both saw and heard things he could not speak of’ regarding the coming together of His church, which IS His body.
And just maybe that’s why he prayed for His church that although there were such wonderful expressions of His life flowing through it, he was privy to the Father’s design, and asked of the Father to give unto His church a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the true knowledge of Him.

Within man, long before the technology was discovered regarding the ability to ‘clone’ was very much a reality that was set into motion from the church’s inception. Whenever the individual/s moved away from their only Life, Christ in them, it devolved into a form of godliness, but lacking any power.
It seems without fail every time God the Father makes himself known to someone in the uniqueness of what that constitutes, man only seeing at best the external results of these holy encounters begins sooner or later to manipulate it and turn it into a movement and ultimately a denomination, and of course the only one who HAS the truth!

I will most likely come back to this conversation many different times regarding His church which is His body, as so many are being awakened to the reality of who He really is and the loving but probing question he seems to delight in asking; “Who do you say I AM?”

Rich