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Deeper, Stronger, Further

Deeper, Stronger, Further

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God gave me a prophetic picture for the Church. I saw a picture of a seed being planted, and it was growing into a strong and a healthy tree. First, I saw the roots growing down. Then I saw the trunk growing up. Then I saw the branches growing out. Finally, I saw lots of fruit on this tree! I was aware that before there was fruit, there were roots growing down, a trunk growing up, and branches growing out.

Father is more pleased with our spiritual growth than he is with a static spiritual position. God is calling the Church back to three truths in regard to deeper, stronger, and further.

DEEPER

Deeper is DISCIPLESHIP – the roots growing down.

The starting point of discipleship is found in the following well-known verse:

Matthew 4:19 (NIV) “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”

Discipleship is all about following Jesus. To be clear, following Jesus means that He is leading us. And this brings us to a very interesting verse. To the disciples who had been following Jesus for some time, Jesus brings a clarification of what following Him should look like. Here’s what He said:

Matthew 16:24 (NIV) Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

This instruction was spoken just after Peter tried to tell Jesus that He didn’t need to go to the cross. Peter tried to lead Jesus, and many times, we can do the same. It is an easy trap to fall into if we tell God why He has got it wrong. Disciples follow Jesus, they don’t lead Him.

Here’s two statements that are worth meditating on as we consider growing down deeper in discipleship:

  • If we are not denying ourselves and taking up our cross, then we are not following Jesus.
  • If we are doing everything that we want to do, then we are not following Jesus.

STRONGER

Stronger is PERSEVERANCE – the trunk growing up.

Some time ago, I remember saying to God, “Lord, I want it to be easier.” His reply to me was immediate and it left me nowhere to hide. He said, “I want you to be stronger.” God had my attention!

Ephesians 6:10 (NIV) Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

I had a revelation: If I’m not being strong, maybe it’s because I’m not in the Lord. It is so easy to go from being in the Spirit to being in the flesh, and then going back and forth between the two, even in a single conversation. What is needed is for us to learn to remain in God.

John 15:5 (NIV) “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

One of the keys to becoming stronger through perseverance is learning to respond towards God, rather than to react against people or circumstances. This is easier said than done, but it most definitely is possible in God.

I then heard the words, “Trees grow towards the sun.” I knew this was the Lord speaking so I Googled what I heard, and I found out about phototropism – plants grow towards the source of light. As persevering disciples of Jesus, we too grow up towards the light of the Son of God as we keep our eyes fixed on Him.

FURTHER

Further is EVANGELISM / MISSION – the branches growing out.

Luke 19:10 (NIV) “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

This foundational reality is a central truth of our faith that Father is reestablishing. Lost people matter to God, and they must matter to us too. As the church, we do not exist for ourselves. Our focus must not remain on us simply enjoying God and His presence. Let’s go back to our opening verse:

Matthew 4:19 (NIV) “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”

When Jesus called people to follow Him, He made it clear that following Him would result in disciples that fished for people. One evidence that we are following Jesus is that we are fishing for people. Conversely, if we are not fishing for people, are we in fact actually following Jesus?

John 15:1-2 (NIV) “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”

God is restoring the Church to deeper discipleship (deny yourself), stronger perseverance (take up your cross), and further evangelism and mission (follow Jesus). The result will be even more fruit for the glory of God!

Listen to the audio message from Steve – Deeper, Stronger, Further

Related blogs – Discipleship, Christ as Cornerstone

Convinced In Our Christianity

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I am convinced that the majority of people in our world are not anti-Jesus. Are some anti-church? Yes. But they are not necessarily anti-Jesus.

The gospel tells us that “the common people heard him gladly” (Mark 12:37). Why? The answer is simple: because Jesus loved people!  He healed people, fed people, forgave people, and had compassion on people.  He loved everyone, including those whom others considered unlovable. He had time for little children and talked to those that others would have normally ignored. What was there not to love about Jesus?  Everything He said, no matter how challenging, was worthy of listening to because who He was had such credibility with His audience.  Although there were religious leaders who despised what He said, the majority heard His message with eagerness.

Because He was the message, He was received as He delivered the message.

All of this, of course, was made possible because of the indwelling Holy Spirit who was, literally, God-in-man.

My point is that we are to have the indwelling Holy Spirit, who is yearning to love people through us as He did through Jesus.  As we acknowledge Him constantly and intentionally, allow Him to live His life through us, we will have a glow about us that will attract, not repel.  The true Church of Jesus is an intensely beautiful body of people who it is a delight to know and have connection with.

Friends, if we live out of intimacy with the Father and by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, we will live life differently. We will be literally convincing in our Christianity.  Not out of striving to do so, but because we will feel different; the result will come from a transformed heart within. That inner glow will be seen in our countenance, our attitudes, our actions, and our lifestyle.  True representatives of Jesus are beautiful people!

The common people heard Him gladly because His life was so completely convincing.  He walked the talk.

My challenge is this: To what degree are we convincing? Christians are called to be men and women of strong conviction – “the convinced ones”.  We often preach about those convictions and even write books about them; but do we live them?

There is only one way that we can effectively live out the convictions of the Christian life, and that is by the empowering reality of the indwelling Holy Spirit.  As we get a new revelation of His reality and Person within us, and surrender entirely to His control and directorship, those convictions become flesh in us, and the beauty of His life will be seen.  The Holy Spirit knows how to represent Jesus well and, in becoming the message, our communication of the message, is received much more easily.

In short, we need a new reliance on the indwelling Holy Spirit. We need to live life as one utterly abandoned to the cause of accurately representing Jesus to our world.  Friends, we need to be convincing.  I will close with the same thoughts from Selwyn Hughes in his devotional ‘Every Day with Jesus’,

“The indwelling of the Holy Spirit gives us a face-lift that makes us APPEAR redeemed, an inner assurance that makes us FEEL redeemed and reinforces every part of our personality so that we ACT redeemed.  It is the Spirit who makes the convinced convincing.”

My challenge to each of us is to live life in such a way that people will grow to love the Jesus we represent.

Isn’t it awesome that we have wonderful Holy Spirit, who empowers us to do exactly that!

Your friend,

David.

 

Read another related blog: Ambassadors For Christ by David McCracken.

Available To God

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We’ve entered 2023 and every day I’m becoming a little more aware of just how short time is. How valuable it is. And how we are commanded to redeem the time and make it count. My cry is that I want my life to count; I want to be useful! I want to be available to God and I want to be fruitful! Is that your cry too?

The Bible says that “David served God in his generation.” Many others have done likewise, such as William and Catherine Booth, Charles Finney, the Wesley brothers, Billy Graham, and Reinhard Bonnke. The key factor that these heroes of the faith had in common was their availability to God. They were just ordinary people like you and me. But that’s just it – God isn’t looking for superstars. He delights in using the foolish, the uneducated, the seeming nobodies. Father loves to use ordinary people whose hearts are sold out for Him. Jesus’ disciples are the perfect example of this. Whether we are those with one talent or five talents is not what matters to God. He is looking to do extraordinary things through submitted, committed, believers who are available.

To be available means to present yourself to be ready for immediate use. To be available is to be accessible, obtainable, to be willing to do something, or to resume responsibility for something.

In Luke 1:26-38 we read of Mary learning that she will give birth to a son. I can’t comprehend just what Mary must have been thinking and feeling, knowing the potential judgment that would come with explaining what had taken place. And yet her words were: “Be it unto me according to thy word.”

In Acts 9:1-22 we read the story of Saul’s conversion. Saul was actively doing everything in his power to bring about persecution to God’s people, so you can imagine Ananias’ thoughts when the Lord told him to go and lay hands on Saul in order that he might be healed. Yet, regardless of his own understanding, Ananias did as the Lord had told him – because he was dedicated to seeing the will of God fulfilled.

In Matthew 4:18-22 we read of Jesus calling some of His disciples. These men were not fishing for a hobby, it was their livelihood. And yet when they heard Jesus say “Come, follow me,” they left their nets behind and followed Him.

Many heroes of the faith are mentioned in scripture – these are just few of the many examples found throughout the Bible, of those who showed total commitment to pursuing the will of God regardless of the cost. So, what does it require of us today to be committed servants of God? It requires attentiveness to His voice, sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, and a responsiveness to His leading.

Following Jesus is not always going to be easy and convenient. There is a cost involved.

Jesus tells a parable about the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) – a story about someone who was available to God. A kingdom opportunity to show kindness and mercy cost the Good Samaritan not only in terms of money, but the time and inconvenience of an interruption in his day – taking him away from whatever it was he was doing.

Availability to God will often cost more than just time and effort – it will cost us our comfort.

Luke 9:23 (NIV) Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.

We are called to complete abandonment to the will of God. To follow the Lord means we owe Him everything. We are called to die to self and to passionately pursue our Saviour. But in the world we live in today, there is so much that is constantly fighting for our attention. Today we have a great opportunity to stop and honestly assess our personal priorities. Ask yourself these questions: How do my priorities align with the Word of God? Am I available to God? What are the things that I allow to consume my time, attention, and money? And do these things have eternal value?

As believers, our hearts need to be ready to fulfil the will of God. We need to be presenting ourselves daily before God and asking Him what He’d have us do. A good servant finds out what his master wants and does that. However, this is not to be done in a religious way; it’s not works-based or performance-related. It is simply about a response of love for all the Lord has done for us – having an attitude of being available and willing to walk through doors of opportunity as they open before us.

Whether it is sharing the gospel, praying for the sick, showing kindness to a stranger, stepping into a leadership role, activating our faith, or giving to extend God’s kingdom, the only ability that God is looking for is availability.

How available are you today?

 

Read a Prophetic Word for 2023 here.