Yesterday was a powerful day in the Lord for our church body! It is so rewarding
when I can just sit down and watch the Lord work through His many, membered
body the ecclesia.
The word He spoke to us was "Return to the Lord, Repent."
The definition referred was: Have "a change in attitude and outlook,
and to have a REVERSAL of thinking which would change one's life! (Jer. 3:7,11, 14; Mt. 3:1)
TRUE STORY: For many years in my home the coffee pot and cups have been on the right hand side of my kitchen sink. The drinking glasses were always on the left side in the cabinet. We built our home around 1978-79. When I wanted a cup of coffee, cups were right above the coffee pot on the right hand side. Makes sense doesn’t it! (laughter)
Well, I had a brilliant idea to move the coffee pot to the
left hand side of my sink which was a shorter counter space. Bill and I began the process of switching
sides, moving all the coffee cups and glasses (lol - 3shelves in each cabinet).
Coffee was
made! We just needed a coffee cup! Without thinking guess which cabinet we
reached into to get the cup! Yes that is
correct! The cabinet that we had been
trained to get a coffee cup from all of these years of it being in that
location and position. When we needed
glasses for tea, etc., guess which cabinet we would reach into to get the
glass? Yes, you are right again!
For months,
and even now, we still find ourselves almost reverting back to something we had
done for years. Laughter is like a
medicine so we laugh a lot about it and remark about how ingrained that habit
had been in our lives without us realizing that we had practiced it so long
that it was automatic to which cabinet we went to for what we needed.
Religion
has placed everyone of us in this same box!
We do church and ministry using all the habitual things we have done in
our past! This must stop! God has spoken a word to us that without a
genuine Return to the Lord, without a daily repentance that causes us to have a
REVERSAL OF THINKING THAT WILL CHANGE
OUR LIVES, things will progress on as usual.
The heart
of ministry is not creating events and activities because we are trying to fill
a calendar or promote. The God I read
about is the God of Details. All you have
to do is read about Moses and the Israelites, and each servant leader of the
Lord. God issued Moses a call in Exodus,
chapter 3, and gave Moses detail instructions on not only what he was called to
do, but also how to proceed. Moses’ part
was to get into alignment and move as the Lord commanded. Almost every leader in the Old & New
Testament heard from God with detail instructions following. (Genesis
to Revelation; and pay attention to the detailed instructions given from God)
Because we
have been trained in the world and religious system, we automatically follow
with certain habits and behavior. In the
house of the Lord we start with a prayer, 2 or 3 songs, receive offering, give
commercials, have a good little word. In
the business world we know how to market what we want to present or accomplish
or sell.
How can we know the Mind of the Lord if we have not even
prayed into what he is called us to do? How
can we proceed on with the work of the Lord if we have not received the detail
or instruction on what to do next? We
are not referring to how we have been trained religiously or in the business
world.
Religious
protocols say if we are having a training we need to advertise and we need to
charge a fee, send a letter out to all the churches, and oh this is a good idea. But the question is: “What
does the Father say to do and then other questions as to What is our purpose for having this
training? Who are we attempting to reach
with this training?
We are NOT SAYING that these things are bad or wrong.
We ARE SAYING that without
the Word of the Lord in the details we will get it wrong!
Team
Work involves Team Prayer and prophetic intercession.
As we begin to align and position ourselves with our calling
then we need to pray into it and let God lead us and guide us.
Many years
ago I was an organizer! Bill & I
owned two retail tire dealerships and one retread plant. My job was everything that dealt with
paperwork; accounts payables, accounts receivable, payroll, etc. and training of office help. It took organization to be able to handle all
the areas that were under my supervision.
For our business it was important to stay on top of things. (By
the way we were the 2nd largest dealer for Goodyear Tire &
Rubber Company in the Southern Region)
In the
church I operated with the same mentality…..organize…have a guideline for
everything that functioned. As the IPHC
MS State Women’s Director, organization again played an important role in what
we accomplished. Meetings and ministry events
before my tenure totaled around 25-30 at the most at any given event.
The Lord
gave me a vision (spoke to me) and showed me step by step how to
accomplish His purpose. It was not by
how organized we were that caused WM to grow up to over 150 women comprised of
ALL denomination, and cultures. Organization
and structure are good up to a point.
What was it then? Here are the steps for you!
1) Only planning and moving as He spoke. Not doing something just because it’s a good
thing.
2) Allow the Spirit to move freely in every service
3) Follow His detail instructions in that service or event above your programs, or organizational outline
In this
movement from religion to relationship; from the pastor to five fold; to
becoming apostolic people there are major changes and mindsets that must be
reversed in the way we do things.
The best thing I ever did as a leader in the Kingdom of God was learning "how to hear his Voice and follow His instruction." Most of the time He would only give one instruction to begin with, but I was always amazed to see that obeying that one instruction lead to an unfolding of Holy Spirit movement in our meetings.
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