Dr. Wong Hong Meng
01-09-2019
Leviticus 25:23 New King James Version (NKJV)
Redemption of Property
23 ‘The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me.
The truth of God's Word comes from God Himself. It is meant to be given out to other beneficiaries. It is my duty to take it out and distribute it.
1 Peter 4:10 New King James Version (NKJV)
10 As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
Proverbs 10:22 New King James Version (NKJV)
22 The blessing of the Lord makes one rich,
And He adds no sorrow with it.
We are all blessed because God seeks to bless you.
It is in our nature to think of ourselves as owners.
As I'm conditioned to be a steward, my thinking, actions and behaviour will be more and more as a steward. Allow God's Word and the Holy Spirit to come into the process.
We need to reach across racial and religious divide to touch lives.
We need to do small and little gestures of love. But with no ulterior motive of conversion. God will do the rest.
Rev Peter Tsukahira
25-08-2019 (1st service)
National awakening is next on God's agenda.
A little bit more than a hundred years ago, there was an outburst of the [Holy] Spirit that gave birth to what today is called the Pentecostal movement. In 1906, there were Bible students in Topeka, Kansas and Pastor [William J.] Seymour in Azusa Street in California. They saw in the Scriptures that there was an outpouring of the Spirit that was described in the Book of Acts and they began to believe that God would do it again in the modern day. They prayed, fasted and waited on the Lord. God began to pour out His Spirit and people began to speak in other tongues. There was a start of a restoration of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and it began a movement of the Holy Spirit that would be called the Pentecostal movement. When it started, the Pentecostal movement did not go mainstream in Christianity. It was very much alive and vibrant and it continued to grow but it grew in, you might say, a corner of Christianity worldwide. Pentecostal groups and churches were formed and Pentecostal leaders began to go out and preach but it simply wasn't mainstream.
About 50 or 60 years later or you might say, a generation later, came the Charismatic movement. The Charismatic movement was a second wave of Pentecost. Those people had accepted this truth of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the outpouring of the Spirit, speaking in tongues and the gifts of the Spirit. But what made the Charismatic movement different from the Pentecostal movement was that it actively and deliberately took this message into the mainstream of Protestant Christianity. In many cases, there were charismatics who remained in their denominations in order to bring renewal to their denominations. They were those who couldn't find that possible and you had the start of the independent Charismatic churches that branched out from existing denominations. But the Charismatic movement went deep into the mainstream of Protestant Christianity and began to influence just about all people who considered Jesus as Lord and could indentify themselves as Protestants. That was about 50 years ago. It was also a generation ago.
This church, as far as I understand, was birthed out of that Charismatic renewal and came out of a Brethren tradition--branched out and filled with the Spirit.
When God moves by His Spirit, He has a purpose in mind. He has a goal in mind. It's not accidental and it's not random. And when God does new things, the challenge of these new things is not like what He did before. If the Pentecostal movement over a hundred years ago had been similar to what God had done before, then it wouldn't have caused such a disruption in the church. Similarly, when the Charismatic movement came along, there was a lot of controversy back in those days. There was a lot of argument. There were people who were saying, "If you speak in tongues, you're from the devil." On the other side, there were people saying, "If you don't speak in tongues, you're not saved." So there were arguments. There were divisions in churches. Because when God does a new thing, it is often just not more of the same; it is something new and by definition, it means something that hasn't happened before.
I believe a generation later, God is again doing something new. God is pursuing and pouring out His Spirit for a national awakening. In other words, it's not more of the same; it's following in the direction of His purposes but it's new and it's different and it requires new skills, new decisions and a new mindset that comes to us through the Holy Spirit.
I've been in many countries where there's an intense focus on church growth. I served in an organisation called Church Growth International for about 15 years. Many of them are still my friends and they pastor some of the largest churches in the world. I began to realise that God has a purpose in growing the church. But the purpose goes beyond mere numbers. The analogy would be when a child is born. You take the newborn to a paediatrician and the first thing the doctor does is measure the child. The doctor wants to know how many grams the child weighs and how long the child is. In my experience, sometimes there's a chart on the wall and it plots the average or normal growth of children. The idea is that when a newborn comes into the world, the first thing you want that child to do is grow. You'd want normal, healthy growth. However, after a while, you start looking for response and the development of other parts of that person. And a while later, you're going to look for intelligence and awareness. And even later, you're looking for problem-solving, character, the ability to know the difference between right and wrong, conscience and integrity. All these things you have to build into the child. That's normal growth to maturity. Eventually you're looking at a mature child who's grown to become a person who is able to father or mother other children and then move into a new phase of growth. In every stage of human growth, you're faced with new challenges.
My point is, there is a time in the church when you must focus on growth. When you start, you've got to grow, have more people and increase in numbers. After a while, numbers and numerical growth cannot remain the single parameter of success. In some places, if we're able to add to our numbers week by week, month by month and year by year, then we will call that success. The reverse is also true. If our numbers began to drop, we get worried that we're losing our success. Numerical growth is still the number one and the most important parameter of success.
God's objectives go beyond numerical growth. You want healthy growth and you should continue to grow rather than shrink in size on a consistent basis. However, at certain stages in your growth, God is coming to look for different things. He's looking for response, decision-making, direction, character and maturity.
Discipleship is about nurturing, training, disciplining and guiding the people who are the church into a place of maturity. Church growth alone will never be enough to meet the requirements of what God wants.
In our generation, God is making a turn after the Pentecostal explosion of the Spirit and after the Charismatic diffusion of that Spirit right into the mainstream of Christianity a generation ago.
Now God's objective is national awakening. He's got the people who understand the power of the Holy Spirit.
Now the question is, can we take the power of the Spirit, not just into the church and not just grow the church, but can we take the power of the Spirit out of the church into our society and begin to transform our nation?
If we missed this incredible turning point and continued only to focus on church growth, what will happen is the younger generation will opt out. And you'll get older and older and older in your numbers--the people that remain in the core of your congregation. Why? Because young people who grow up in Christian families want to go out and do things. They have the values and the beliefs but more than 90 percent of them are going to be called by God and gifted by God in non-religious giftings. They're going to be lawyers and doctors and they're going to be working in corporations and starting businesses. They are going into education and some of them are going to be called into government service. That's 90 percent of the Body of Christ. This generation are kind of impatient with the way we perceive the growth of the kingdom to be. This next generation will be more interested in going out and actually achieving something. "I wanna be someone! I wanna do things in my life! I have gifts and talents and it's a whole world out there! Sure, I wanna be a Christian! Yes, I don't wanna give up my valuers and my faith! But I'm not called to sit; I'm called to do!"
You have to made that turn because God is moving ahead. What He wants is national awakening. That's the shape of the new move. Yes, it doesn't look like the move of God in the last generation. But why should it? Every time God moves, it's new. Sometimes the people who oppose the new move of God are the ones who were most successful in the previous move of God! It was the established and strong evangelical churches that most resisted the Charismatic movement! "We've obeyed the Lord. We got here. We build this. What are you taking about?" Back in the day, that was radical. In the 1970s, in the Bible belt of America (in Texas, Oklahoma, etc), in the Bible-believing churches, if you put up your hands in worship, the users would spot you. And if you persisted and ignored them, they'd actually push their way down the aisle and urge you to leave the meeting. That was emotionalism. You can imagine how sincere Christians like that reacted when people wanted to speak in tongues. It was a revolution for them. Now, 50 years later, in those same churches, everybody's raising their hands. It doesn't matter whether they speak in tongues or not because they got it. Nobody even blinks an eye. That was the goal of the Charismatic movement--to take the power of the Spirit and the freedom of the Spirit into the mainstream. Don't just enclose it in the Pentecostal churches but get it out there. This is for all Christians. A generation later, I would say, "Mission accomplished."
But don't think that now is a generation after the Charismatic movement. Don't think that what God is going to do now is just more of the same. What He did before, only bigger. He grew our church, now it's gonna be bigger. Don't think that. I believe God has a new goal in each generation. Sing unto the Lord a new song. Be part of the one new man. God does new things in your midst. Will you not see it? Will you not perceive it?
God's given you strength, numbers and facilities. The most precious things He's given you is people. People are the most powerful resource in the kingdom of God. If the Spirit comes to activate the people and when the people are activated, what comes forth from them is the image of God. In no other part in the entire universe is there such a thing. What is already in each of us which is the image of God. But we need to Spirit of God to bring this alive. When the Spirit of God comes upon us, we begin to live in His image and we become witnesses of His Lordship and His Kingdom. We become empowered. Yes, God is saying your churches will grow. Yes, you must make disciples. But God's purpose in our generation is, "I want to change this nation. I want you to look at every person in this nation as your assignment. Every person, every ethnic group, every tribe, every unbeliever in every corner of this nation becomes your responsibility. You're the head and not the tail. You're the sons and daughters of God. Creation is groaning and crying out, "When will we see the manifestation of the real children of God who will walk this earth in the power of the Spirit and show love, justice and goodness, health and the healing power of God to everyone?"" You start this, you start a revolution. And that's what God wants. He wants a national awakening. That's why He gives us powerful churches and resources. That's why He gives us His amazing grace. Because He wants His kingdom to come.
I'm speaking to you as a friend and a pastor for 40 years. He wants more than just church growth. A church should be a factory producing the most precious resource in God's Kingdom--the people in God's Kingdom as disciples who then go out. 90 percent of us will be called by God to earn our living not in buildings like this, but out there. And what you do, how you live your life, how you decide, how you treat the people around you, how you worship God through your livelihood and through the gifts that He's given you and how you manage the measure of authority that He's given each of us... If you're a father or a father, you have authority. You're actually responsible for other people. If you're a manager of a department, you've got authority. You're making decisions that are impacting other people's lives. You have a YouTube or an Instagram following, you have authority. You are an influencer. These are God-given things. How we use that authority and how we use that influence will determine the course of this nation. That's what God is investing in.
And believe me, He's a good investor. That's why you are looking at His investment. Look around you. Don't you think He has a reason? Of course He has a reason. He is very purposeful. Remember the Parable of the Talents? One of the servants said to the master, "You're a shrewd man. You can find a profit even when the market is going down. You reap what you do not sow." In a way, it's a picture of God. God is a very wise investor.
And when He invests in us, the next question we should ask is, "What's on Your mind, Lord? Thank You for your gift but what's on Your mind now?" Because it is not random; it's the grace of God. It's His love, for sure. But there's a reason. A man can receive nothing except what is given to Him from God. That was what John the Baptist said. What you really get, you get from God. Not only is He full of love, patient and full of grace, He's very purposeful. When He gives you something, it's for a reason. After we get something from God, a wise man or a wise woman goes back to Him, not only to give Him thanks, but to ask Him, "What's going on? Why did you give me this? How can I serve you with this wonderful gift?"
What God wants is, He wants the church to start going out, making disciples, reaching out to the lost but not just with a word of evangelism but with a word of growth, a word of character development, a word of change and a word of love. Sometimes our greatest influence is not to evangelise but to rule with love, wisdom, practicality and justice. What the unbelievers need to see is not just the four spiritual laws.
What the non-believers need to see is that you have the same love for them that you have for your own people. Then they're going to get interested in who you are. If they see in you that you would use that little amount of authority that you have to treat them with the same kind of respect and honour that you would show to your own people, they're going to say, "What is it about you? You know what, you're different from me but I don't care. I'll follow you. I want you to be the head." That's where Christians should be in society. Rising to the head, making decisions for all the people and crossing all those barriers.
We have a God in heaven. We know He loves every person, every tribe and every ethnic group.
I'm from an ethnic group. I was born into a Japanese-American family. My grandparents were immigrants from the United States to Japan over a hundred years ago. About the beginning of the 20th century, they left Japan and settled in California. They weren't allowed to be citizens for decades. That was the American government policy. My parents were born in California. And then the Second World War came and Japan was an enemy of the United States. Some of my parents' generation were imprisoned by the American government for the duration of the war. They had to sell their farms, businesses, homes and cars and showed up at a relocation centre with two suitcases. They had two weeks to do that. And then they were taken hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles, from their homes and kept behind barbed wire in camps for the duration of the war. To be fair, 40 years later, the American government apologised. There was an act of Congress in the 1980s and the American Congress wrote a declaration and they said, "We're sorry. This should never have been done. This was because of war hysteria, because of racial prejudice, because of the lack of political leadership." And they paid a token amount of money to all survivors of the camp. This was a good part of American culture. They were able to make a bad mistake but later they were also able to apologise for it. My parents were part of that generation. The response of the Japanese-Americans who experienced that kind of injustice was kind of unique and that was the vast majority of them decided that they had to prove that they're really good Americans. So the vast majority of the Japanese-Americans who were imprisoned by the American government volunteered for the American army. They formed them into a combat unit and sent them to Europe. They fought in Italy and Germany. They became the most decorated military unit in the United States army during the war and they also took the greatest number of casualties. After the war, my father didn't want to return to California because of the racism that he had experienced there so he went to Harvard and he got his PhD in Harvard. I was born during those years.
Even though I'm American born, my view was of the view of a minority. I viewed America as a separate country. Jewish people in America have a different view of America. Irish people in America have a different view of America. Because every group had its own identity. In my case, my father didn't want to be an academic so he joined the state department and became a diplomat for the American government. When I was 10 in 1960, we got sent to Japan as Americans and I was living in a place where I looked exactly like everybody else but I was a complete foreigner. Japanese culture is not like: "Welcome home, son." Even if you'd been out of the country for a few years, Japanese had difficulty in getting back to the culture. I've been out of the country for two generations. I was a complete foreigner in a country of my ethnic identity. I spent my teenage years there. Went back to the United States and ended up marrying my Jewish girlfriend. We came to faith together in the 1970s at the end of the hippie movement and the beginning of the Charismatic movement. Because we were so abandoned to the Lord, God spoke so clearly to us. Within six months of coming to faith out of total darkness (we were the only believers in our families, God just pulled us out of the fire into the kingdom of God), we didn't know what to do except whatever He said. Because we were that naive or that abandoned or probably a mixture of both, God spoke really clearly to us in those first six months of our believing life. He said three things: "You're going to get married, you're going to go into ministry, and you're going to Israel." It was just so clear. So we got married in 1974. Then I went to Bible school and I started to learn the Bible and I started to relate to the Jewish side of my family. We went back to Japan to minister in the 1980s. I also worked in the marketplace. Then in 1987, the Lord opened the doors for us to go to Israel. And we've been in Israel ever since. For 32 years, we've become part of the nation of Israel. Our son was born there. Our daughter was only two when we moved there. They grew up in Israel. They went to Israeli schools. Hebrew is their heart language. They are finished with the military. They've completed their universities. They are grown as Israelis. We launched our next generation into a completely different culture and a completely different nationality. According to Israeli law, the sons and daughters of a Jewish woman are considered Jewish. That means I'm the only Gentile in the family. Here again, I'm a complete outsider in the land that God has sent me to. I feel a lot like Abraham. "Leave this country and go into a land where you're a complete stranger for the rest of your life. But I will bless you." We live with the calling that God has given us.
The reason that I'm telling you this is because I'm an observer of the church. The church became my life. God called me to ministry from the time I was in Bible school almost 50 years ago. All I wanted to do was to serve the church. All I wanted to do was to see the church built. When I started as a young pastor in the 1980s, I believed that my church was the kingdom of God. I believed that my job was just to bring the unbelievers into my church, get them to believe in the things that I believe, pray the prayers that I was praying and become part of that congregation. I was advancing the kingdom of God. Those days it was very easy to be able to chart the success or the progress of my work in advancing the kingdom of God. All I had to do was count the chairs on Sunday. More chairs, more success. You're looking at someone who for a couple of decades was completely committed to church growth. Church growth for me was everything. I served on the board. I found a way to be accepted by more successful leaders and to be invited to be a board member with more than 60 pastors from all over the world. We went to Korea every two years to meet in the largest church in the world and I was the only Middle Eastern representative. My church was in the hundreds but every one else their church were in the thousands and tens of thousands and in some cases, hundreds of thousands. For 15 years, I sat at the feet of the most successful pastors in the world.
And I came to the conclusion that church growth as a goal will never bring the kingdom of God. Actually church growth is a symptom that you're moving in the right direction but if you make it the goal, all kinds of problems begin to exist. Because then, deep inside, you start to compete with one another. "Every person that you add is one less person that I'm going to add."
In that sense, church growth never leads you to real unity in the Body of Christ.
Church growth as a goal in and of itself produces some distortions in our understanding of what the kingdom of God truly is. What happens in some of the most successful churches is that you begin to develop more and more of a pyramid type of structure where you have few people or only one person at the very top and everybody is committed to adding people at the bottom. When that structure takes over, you lose the vital characteristics of the kingdom of God.
The vital characteristics of the kingdom of God and what makes it different from any organisation in the world (in my corporate life, I worked for companies and I understand about hierarchy, titles, projects and assignments), is that the kingdom of God is the flattest and most powerful organisation in the world. Why do I said the kingdom of God is flat? Because the King desires to dwell in the midst of His people. And THE King--the Highest Authority in the Kingdom of God--reserves the right and He desires to speak directly with every one in His Kingdom.
That's what always keeps this Kingdom flat. And it gives us mobility. It gives us the ability to change shape. We can build a church. We can take on a humanitarian project. We can send out a mercy ministry and do things that are different. We are the only organisation in the world that has this kind of capability to do all of these things.
Now, what God wants from His people is for you to go out and make a disciple of this nation. To disciple a nation and to look at your entire people, you never have to be a majority. First of all, you'll never be a majority. But you don't ever have to be a majority. 20 percent is nice. If you get to be 30 percent of the national population, the rest of the country will basically demand you to make decisions. They'll force you to make decisions and if you're not prepared to make decisions, it's not very good. But at five to 15 percent, you should already be rising to the top. What's happened here is political breakthrough and immediately Christians rose up. But the Christians that are rising up are there just by the grace of God. No one had this vision. No one taught them to do what they are doing to rise up as your national leaders but still identifying themselves as Christians. Imagine if what the church said, "That's our goal. We're going to produce. We're going to make it our business to produce the greatest business leaders, lawyers, judges, home-makers, educators, public servants. And they are going to go out as disciples." When that starts to happen, you'll realise that your growth goes beyond church growth. You're talking about national awakening. That's the move of God. If you keep thinking that revival means stadiums and powerful speakers, people coming forward and music and decisions for Christ and if that's your only concept of revival, you could completely miss what God is going to do next.
In fact, particularly in Southeast Asia today, I object to the use of the word "Revival." Tehnically, revival means when something was alive and then it died and now you want it to come back to life. Isn't that revival? You want it to be revived. New life! Life to come back. But your nation, when was it ever a Christian nation? As a nation, when did it ever have a full spiritual life and it lost and now it needs to get back? Never! Also, I object to revival because that English word is linked to what we know from the West. It's sad. Coming to the Lord in the 1970s, we sat at the feet of the great revivalist. People like Oral Roberts who had vast tent meetings and a whole generation that actually preceded Oral Roberts whose names we don't know. They were revivalists. Then it went on to Billy Graham and DL Moody and they filled stadiums. I think you're conditioned to think of the American revivals where it was big tents, open air meetings, stadiums and big public meetings like Reinhard Bonnke who took that tradition to Africa. We think of revival as that kind of revival. That's not what's happening here. What's happening here in Asia is awakening.
Yours is a nation and the nations around you are nations that've never had a widespread or a national vision of Jesus as King. Can you imagine when a nation gets a vision of Jesus as King? That's very, very powerful. And the churches contribute to that vision by consistently producing the best people, the most qualified people, the people who are the most filled with integrity, the people who show love and justice and who make good decisions, and the people who walk in the fear of God and refuse to do harm to their neighbour and refuse to cheat on their spouses. You walk into society and you bring an awakening. That's what God has in mind.
God has an individual plan. He has a plan for every human. And He has a plan for every family. We've learned that. But families grow and families of families become tribes or ethnic groups. God has a plan for every ethnic group. But ethnic groups that agree with one another and tribes that agree with one another and come to a place where they say, "God will lead us as one" become nations. Nations are when tribes agree. There's no nation where there's only one ethnic group. There are nations that have tried to be a nation based on a single ethnic group. In the last century, two nations tried to make nationhood based on racial identity. One of those nations was called Germany and the other was called Japan. They tried in the last generation and it was disaster for them and it was disaster for the world. No nation is just one ethnic group. Nations are formed when ethnic groups agree: "We will work as one." That's what makes nations. And that's why Christians should always be the head and not the tail. That's the characteristic of the Kingdom of God.
Isaiah 56:7 New King James Version (NKJV)
7 For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
This King desires to lead all the ethnic groups. This King desires to provide justice and love for every tribe, person and tongue. That's why this King deserves to rule the nations. He alone can bring it together.
Genesis 12 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Abram Journeys to Egypt
12 Now the Lord said to Abram,
“[a]Go forth from your country,
And from your relatives
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you;
2 And I will make you a great nation,
And I will bless you,
And make your name great;
And so [b]you shall be a blessing;
3 And I will bless those who bless you,
And the one who [c]curses you I will [d]curse.
And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
This is the call, destiny, gift and chosen purpose for the people of Israel to be the example of the nation that God created and God rules. The people of Israel developed into 12 differrent tribes and then God became King in the desert in Exodus. "You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." (Exodus 19:6) "I will dwell among the sons of Israel and will be their God." (Exodus 29:45) God alone brought those tribes together and formed out of 12 tribes one nation, exactly as what He has promised Abraham. He waited hundreds of years until they were separate tribes and then He stepped in and brought the tribes together and made them one. He said, "You will be My kingdom and My kingdom will be a blessing and an example for all the other kingdoms and all the other nations of the world." Only one of the 12 tribes or less than 10 percent of the people of Israel were called specifically and professionally to be priests and given the honoured position to serve in religion. I'm one of those people. I'm part of the religious sector of God's kingdom. That means I always know I'm always speaking to the 90 percent. Many of God's laws are about sacrifice, worship, offering and religious things. But the rest of His laws are about everything else from public health, food, clothing, banking and real estate. By the way, when He was King of Israel, He said, "I will rule the real estate market. Every 50 years I push the big reset button. It's called the Year of Jubilee. In My kingdom, I set the date. You prorate the transactions right up to the Year of Jubilee. Then I hit the button and everybody gets it back. That means one family can be super successful in one generation but their children are still going to have to work hard. That means one family can be super unsuccessful in one generation but their children won't pay the price for their parents' debts." What a brilliant law. He said, "My kingdom is designed to last forever." Today we don't have the Year of Jubilee so the markets reset themselves. It's chaotic. It's not planned. It's not godly and many people are hurt. God brought all the people together and said, "If you do it My way, I will make you the head and not the tail. You'll be such a blessing and all the other nations will look and wonder and they'll want to be like you."
We know from the Bible that Israel rejected the kingdom of God. They went into the land and when they did get successful during the days of Samuel, they said to Samuel, "Tell God we're not happy with an invisible king. It's an embarrassment. We want to be like the other nations. They have human kings, palaces and guards. Why do we have to be such an odd nation? Give us a human king." Samuel said, "That's not a good idea. The first thing that a human king would do is to tax you. Believe me. The 10 percent tithe is a better system. Stick with God. And the next thing a human king will do is to take your sons and daughters to national service. Who do you think pay for those palaces? Your taxes. Stick with God." But they wanted human kings. The days of the judges were just chaotic. The days of the kings were idolatrous and demonic. The times of the kings were a disaster. Only one of those kings in the Bible qualifies and he was David, the man after God's heart. Every other human king that Israel had was compromised in some way or a complete failure. David was far from perfect. What made him a great king? He was the only human king that all the twelve tribes of Israel wanted to follow. Because after Saul's house was weakened and Saul lost power even though he fought against David. David was from the tribe of Judah. Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin. Normal practice was for David's tribe to wipe out Saul's tribe. But because David had promised Saul that he wouldn't cut off his descendants and because of David's friendship with Saul's son Jonathan, David refused to do that. And they put the capital Jerusalem on the border between Judah and Benjamin. I believe when the other 10 tribes saw how David treated his enemy, they said to David, "Okay, David. You be king of us." That's what made him a man after God's heart because God always saw His people as a nation. After David, Solomon departed from the Lord and the nation was torn apart and never got back together again.
That's why Jesus came centuries and generations later. And He said, "Repent, Israel. Turn around. The kingdom of God is here. God is coming to rule again." He taught us to pray: "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." He taught all of us through the great sermon on the Mount. He said this is the most important thing, more important than church growth. He said, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Everything else you need, I'll give you."
What is the kingdom of God? Israel is the picture. It's national awakening. Who can rise up in this nation and bring the tribes together? It's time for the Christians to rise up. "I've been trained in this. I've understand love and justice. I will make decisions in the fear of God." This is the role of disciples. This is what makes the Body of Christ the head and not the tail. We have the power of the Spirit.
The last question that the disciples asked the Lord?
Acts 1:6-8 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
6 So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; 8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
That verse started the Pentecostal movement and gave life to the Charismatic movement.
That's national awakening. Your nation first. When the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, then all Israel will be saved.
Lord, thank You for the men and women, the servants of God in this great church. Thank you for how they've stood and been Your witness in this nation. I pray that You will refresh and renew and pour out Your Spirit of life on us, our families and our tribes, and You'll cause us to become the head and not the tail. Help us to embark in this new vision to plant new churches, starting with discipling new leaders because every one of those new churches and every one of those new disciples needs someone to lead him or her into the kingdom of God and invest in him or her to the point where we become mature and able to bear fruit on our own. So raise up mature believers, men and women who've walked with the Lord and with this church for decades. Raise them up as fathers and mothers and as mentors. Let them take advantage of the experience in what You've invested in their lives over the years to spread out their wings and bring some of these younger men and women under their wings to mentor them, raise them up, disciple them so that these young new leaders can launch out and be the ones who are going to plant these 100 churches and disciple these 100,000 new disciples. Lord, I pray that Your Spirit will fall upon us and that we'll sing unto the Lord a new song and will look forward to new things, not more of what has already been done but something new to start afresh. I pray that the Holy Spirit will quicken our hearts and awaken us to the new battle that's at hand and that we'll realise that we're not beginners anymore, we're seasoned warriors. We know how to use the sword of the Spirit. We know how to break through the lines of the enemy. We are going to break through, not only for ourselves and our own families but now we're going to break through for the next generation. Send a new wind of the Spirit and blow away the old, roll the burdens off our shoulders and give us a sharp and clear vision of what is coming and what is next. Let these be the people who rose up in Your kingdom, who knew Your purposes and knew what was necessary to get done. Lord, strengthen our hands, stir up the gifts within us and let these days ahead be the most fruitful days of our lives. Let us begin to see now the results of having walked with You all these years, having listened to Your Spirit, having obeyed, having sacrificed and now we being to see the fruit. I pray that men and women in this room room will reach out to the younger generation and become mentors and spiritual fathers and mothers who are able to raise up younger people and help them to find their place of fruitfulness. Seal these things in our hearts and plant these seeds deep so that they bear fruit. Thank You for Your grace upon us, Your grace that will never be withdrawn, Your love that will never change, Your gifting and Your calling on each one of us that will never be taken away. We pray these all and we give You thanks in the name of Jesus. Amen.
RELATED:
BLINK THEOLOGY (ROMANS 9-11)
THE CALL TO DISCIPLESHIP (I)
THE PATH TO DISCIPLESHIP (II)
THE POWER OF DISCIPLESHIP (III)
THE SHAPE OF THE MOVEMENT OF GOD AND THE FOUNDATIONAL NATURE OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD
FINDING YOUR GIFT AND DESTINY IN GOD'S KINGDOM
Rev Peter Tsukahira
25-08-2019
Ephesians 2:10 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Everybody has an assigned role and a gift and special calling from God.
In the Bible, there are many instances that people realised that their lives have been planned by God before they were born.
Eg. The prophet Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 1:5 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
And before you were born I consecrated you;
I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Eg. King David.
Psalm 139:13 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
13 For You formed my [a]inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
God designed him before he was born.
Psalm 139:16 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
16 Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.
What's revealed to King David is the revelation that God had planned his life before he lived those days. God always knew.
Eg. Hannah, the mother of Samuel. She was mocked by her family and she was unable to produce offsprings. Finally she made a promise to God to raise her son and he would belong to God and serve God alone. Immediately she got pregnant with Samuel. She handed him to Eli the priest. Samuel became the greatest of the judges of Israel. When she made that vow, God stepped into the picture. She had several other children after that.
Eg. John the Baptist. The angel appeared to Zechariah of the nature and destiny of his unborn son. He was going to be the forerunner of the Messiah.
Eg. The Apostle Paul.
Galatians 1:15 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
15 But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased
Before he was a persecutor of the early believers and before he was inspired by God to write half of the New Testament, he was set apart by God.
Eg. Jesus Christ. He is the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. He and the Father are one. There's nothing accidental about Jesus.
There are many more examples in the Bible.
Conclusions:
1) God has at least two classes of servants. Some He handcrafts and creates and others like us who are stamped out in the factory in the industrial part of heaven.
2) What's true about these people in the Bible is also true about each one of us.
The God that we know in the Bible is a God of intense creativity. He never has to do the same things twice. He creates our universe and He moves in intense uniqueness.
The crown of God's creation is human beings. He made us in His image. We are completely unique. He already has a plan. He planned us before we were born. He made us to live forever. He designed us according to that plan. Because of His intense fatherly love, there is a design in His heart for each one of us. God's dream for us becomes flesh. But we come into an imperfect, sin darkened world. And the people who surround us, ie. our parents, out all their plans and expectations and hopes and ambitions and shattered dreams and difficulties on our little shoulders. In school, teachers take over. And our classmates teach us what it means to be popular and what it means to have friends. Then we have to survive in the society. They began to insert intense pressure on us on what it takes to succeed and how devastating it is to fail. We are looking at the survivors in the adult society. We can change so quickly and adapt so fast. That's the story of adult society in places all around the world. But in quieter moments, we ask, "Who am I? What about me?" It breaks the heart of God that everybody doesn't know Him. God has a good plan for everybody.
What about the people who ghot caught up in drugs and their lives shattered by war? God weeps over creation. He has provided a way by sending His own Son. Jesus is the way and the truth and the life. But God is reaching out and trying to reveal the goodness of His plan to every single person because free people will seek the Word of God. For some of us, when we become aware, we go, "Yes!" and we make decision towards the direction of the call. Because Jesus said many are called but few are chosen. God calls to many and to all. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. His call and love go to all. But few are chosen. In the making of those choices, we cross more among the call to the chosen.
Ekklesia means out off and call. It means called out of darkness into life. In English, it translates into church. The church is the called out ones. You are among the chosen. You need to know the basics. Who is God? How to pray? God is a God of relationships. It delights Him to be in relationship with His people. It fills His heart with joy and He delights in prayer. He's bound by covenant that He's promised that He'll answer our prayers. You leant to hear the still small voice of the Holy Spirit.
The first great discovery is "Who is God?"
The second great discovery is "Who does this God say that I am? Who am I to Him? And what's required of me?" He is our creator. He's the One who made you and designed you before you were born, before even you're in your mother's womb.
The next thing you'd want to do is to have a conversation with God about that. "When you made me, what's your plan for me?"
But He doesn't answer. Usually the problem is you are not ready to do what God wants you to do. It is actually more merciful for Him not to tell you. So how do you get God to tell you the eternal plan for your life?
Never go to God's house without a gift. You bring something precious and worthy to God. You get to be like Hannah before you bring your request to God. You make a promise to God. "Whatever You say to me, I will make it my business to get it done for You." You want His will and walk that eternal life. And God says, "Do this." And you go, "What?! That?! Not that!" Usually it is something so simple, lowly, humble and so unseen. Eg. "Go help a person." But you promised. If you start down this path, immediately things begin to happen. Everytime you go back to God after you'd done it, there's joy. And it becomes passion. Your passion becomes that jet fuel that gets you keep moving despite the difficult times.
The next thing you find is your gift. Every human being is designed by God with at least one gift. That gift will produce income and respect. Find your gift. Your gift is down that road. Your gift is holy and set aside for you by God.
Now you realise that there are people with similar gift.
This is the road of a disciple. You do it and do it and do it and every time you do it, it works. This delights the heart of your Father so much that occasionally, He reaches out His hand and touches the use of your gift with supernatural power. And that's called the anointing. Every child of God is gifted and every child of God should become anointed. And these little miracles change the world. It will be miracles in other people's lives. Fruits are the results of you using your gift and it impacts the lives of other people.
Every one of us needs to give an account of our life. What's going to be on your final exam? God is going to ask you, "What about My plan that I have for you before you were born?" And that's all that He's going to ask you. The God that we serve is our creator.
RELATED:
BLINK THEOLOGY (ROMANS 9-11)
THE CALL TO DISCIPLESHIP (I)
THE PATH TO DISCIPLESHIP (II)
THE POWER OF DISCIPLESHIP (III)
THE SHAPE OF THE MOVEMENT OF GOD AND THE FOUNDATIONAL NATURE OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD
FINDING YOUR GIFT AND DESTINY IN GOD'S KINGDOM
Rev Peter Tsukahira
24-08-2019
This last session is about the power of discipleship.
Faith begins by asking the question, "Who is God?" This is the basic of discipleship. "What are the scriptures? How to worship?"
The next question is "Who does God say that I am?"
We want our faith to lead us to Him. If God created everything and me, then what is the plan? Who am I to Him?
Once you've settled the identity issue, then the power begins to grow. The problems are not part of your plan and identify. You are not responsible.
As soon as we walk that road, we find ourselves coming out of the crowd like the Apostles did. And you will realise that you are different from everybody else because you are absolutely unique. Never be afraid to do it different or be different from anyone else. Embrace your own uniqueness before God. No one else is going to be able to answer God for you and you cannot live someone else's life for them. In the end, you are going to give account for your life and you want to be an example for someone else.
Genesis 12:2 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
2 And I will make you a great nation,
And I will bless you,
And make your name great;
And so [a]you shall be a blessing;
The initial call for Abraham was to be completely unique. He accepted it. And he had to walk alone. From him came a nation. And Israel has had that unique calling, alone.
Romans 11:28-29 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
28 [a]From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but [b]from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; 29 for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
In obedience or disobedience, God doesn't change His love for Israel. In obedience they became a shining light. In disobedience they were chastised but still became an example. God has kept His promise and has never withdrawn His gifts.
The Nobel prize is awarded annually to recognise human achievements. Since 1895, Jewish people have won over 20 percent of the prize. That's 11,000 percent above average based on size of population.
When we accept the path of God's choosing and serve our Creator who designed us before we were born, we must be rooted in God's identity and embrace it. Then you have power and authority. You become the head and not the tail. The end result is we bring the kingdom of God to the world. As spiritual leaders, we need to look into the eye of the people in our sphere of influence to equip them and make them fruitful. We become a factory that produces quality output - and this quality output is discipled lives. We win the battle by the grace of God.
Start with one. Then each one makes another one. Mass evangelism doesn't change the world. But if you start deliberately making disciples, you end up numerically strong and they continue making disciples.
Genesis 37:2-5 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
2 These are the records of the generations of Jacob.
Joseph, when seventeen years of age, was pasturing the flock with his brothers while he was still a youth, along with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought back a bad report about them to their father. 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a [a]varicolored tunic. 4 His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers; and so they hated him and could not speak to him [b]on friendly terms.
5 Then Joseph [c]had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.
Joseph was Jacob's favourite son. He was one of the youngest. His brothers were years older than him. In his own eyes, his brothers were heroes. His family was his life. He wanted them to treat him as an equal. That's why he told them the dream. And they hated him. They responded with resentment and hatred. It wasn't "Oh Joseph, that's so cool!" They sold him to traders and this chosen young man became a stranger in a strange land and a slave. He lost his rights.
We give to Jesus our rights. We want His opinion, His thought, His desire. We become a servant of the Lord. We come to the cross.
Joseph became a slave in an unjust place. That's where his calling and gift began to emerge. This young man had the gift of administration. He became the head of Potiphar's entire household. Potiphar's wife made advances. But there's something about God's DNA in him. He ran from her. She falsely accused him and he went to prison as a sexual offender. There's no way out now for him.
But God has chosen Joseph. The chief of the prison put him in charge of all the prisoners. He was 17 when he was betrayed by his brothers. He was 30 when he faced the Pharaoh. He learned to serve. He learned humility. He learned to love justice. He learned to seek mercy. He learned the value of hope. He passed it on to people he spent time with. He was called to be a disciple to run an empire. God chose him to be a biblical example to every one of us. In Joseph's case, it was administration. He also knew how to interpret dreams. And the Hebrew slave interpreted the Pharaoh's dreams. He's a disciple by the time he stood before the Pharaoh.
Genesis 41 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Pharaoh’s Dream
41 Now it happened at the end of two full years that Pharaoh had a dream, and behold, he was standing by the Nile. 2 And lo, from the Nile there came up seven cows, sleek and [a]fat; and they grazed in the marsh grass. 3 Then behold, seven other cows came up after them from the Nile, ugly and [b]gaunt, and they stood by the other cows on the bank of the Nile. 4 The ugly and [c]gaunt cows ate up the seven sleek and fat cows. Then Pharaoh awoke. 5 He fell asleep and dreamed a second time; and behold, seven ears of grain came up on a single stalk, plump and good. 6 Then behold, seven ears, thin and scorched by the east wind, sprouted up after them. 7 The thin ears swallowed up the seven plump and full ears. Then Pharaoh awoke, and behold, it was a dream. 8 Now in the morning his spirit was troubled, so he sent and called for all the [d]magicians of Egypt, and all its wise men. And Pharaoh told them his [e]dreams, but there was no one who could interpret them to Pharaoh.
9 Then the chief cupbearer spoke to Pharaoh, saying, “I would make mention today of my own [f]offenses. 10 Pharaoh was furious with his servants, and he put me in confinement in the house of the captain of the bodyguard, both me and the chief baker. 11 We had a dream [g]on the same night, [h]he and I; each of us dreamed according to the interpretation of his own dream. 12 Now a Hebrew youth was with us there, a servant of the captain of the bodyguard, and we related them to him, and he interpreted our dreams for us. To each one he interpreted according to his own dream. 13 And just as he interpreted for us, so it happened; he restored me in my [i]office, but he hanged him.”
Joseph Interprets
14 Then Pharaoh sent and called for Joseph, and they hurriedly brought him out of the dungeon; and when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came to Pharaoh. 15 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, but no one can interpret it; and I have heard [j]it said about you, that [k]when you hear a dream you can interpret it.” 16 Joseph then answered Pharaoh, saying, “[l]It is not in me; God will [m]give Pharaoh a favorable answer.” 17 So Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, “In my dream, behold, I was standing on the bank of the Nile; 18 and behold, seven cows, [n]fat and sleek came up out of the Nile, and they grazed in the marsh grass. 19 Lo, seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ugly and [o]gaunt, such as I had never seen for [p]ugliness in all the land of Egypt; 20 and the lean and [q]ugly cows ate up the first seven fat cows. 21 Yet when they had [r]devoured them, it could not be [s]detected that they had [t]devoured them, [u]for they were just as ugly as [v]before. Then I awoke. 22 I saw also in my dream, and behold, seven ears, full and good, came up on a single stalk; 23 and lo, seven ears, withered, thin, and scorched by the east wind, sprouted up after them; 24 and the thin ears swallowed the seven good ears. Then I told it to the [w]magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me.”
25 Now Joseph said to Pharaoh, “Pharaoh’s [x]dreams are one and the same; God has told to Pharaoh what He is about to do. 26 The seven good cows are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years; the [y]dreams are one and the same. 27 The seven lean and ugly cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven thin ears scorched by the east wind will be seven years of famine. 28 [z]It is as I have spoken to Pharaoh: God has shown to Pharaoh what He is about to do. 29 Behold, seven years of great abundance are coming in all the land of Egypt; 30 and after them seven years of famine will [aa]come, and all the abundance will be forgotten in the land of Egypt, and the famine will [ab]ravage the land. 31 So the abundance will be unknown in the land because of that subsequent famine; for it will be very severe. 32 Now as for the repeating of the dream to Pharaoh twice, it means that the matter is determined by God, and God will quickly bring it about. 33 Now let Pharaoh look for a man discerning and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt. 34 Let Pharaoh take action to appoint overseers [ac]in charge of the land, and let him exact a fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt in the seven years of abundance. 35 Then let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming, and store up the grain for food in the cities under Pharaoh’s authority, and let them guard it. 36 Let the food become as a reserve for the land for the seven years of famine which will occur in the land of Egypt, so that the land will not perish during the famine.”
37 Now the [ad]proposal seemed good [ae]to Pharaoh and [af]to all his servants.
Joseph Is Made a Ruler of Egypt
38 Then Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find a man like this, in whom is a divine spirit?” 39 So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has informed you of all this, there is no one so discerning and wise as you are. 40 You shall be over my house, and according to your [ag]command all my people shall [ah]do homage; only in the throne I will be greater than you.” 41 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.” 42 Then Pharaoh took off his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph’s hand, and clothed him in garments of fine linen and put the gold necklace around his neck. 43 He had him ride in [ai]his second chariot; and they proclaimed before him, “[aj]Bow the knee!” And he set him over all the land of Egypt. 44 Moreover, Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Though I am Pharaoh, yet without [ak]your permission no one shall raise his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.” 45 Then Pharaoh named Joseph [al]Zaphenath-paneah; and he gave him Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of [am]On, as his wife. And Joseph went forth over the land of Egypt.
46 Now Joseph was thirty years old when he [an]stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt. 47 During the seven years of plenty the land brought forth [ao]abundantly. 48 So he gathered all the food of these seven years which occurred in the land of Egypt and placed the food in the cities; he placed in every city the food from its own surrounding fields. 49 Thus Joseph stored up grain [ap]in great abundance like the sand of the sea, until he stopped [aq]measuring it, for it was [ar]beyond measure.
Genesis 45 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Joseph Deals Kindly with His Brothers
45 Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried, “Have everyone go out from me.” So there [a]was no man with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. 2 He [b]wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard of it. 3 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence.
4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come [c]closer to me.” And they came [d]closer. And he said, “I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 Now do not be grieved or angry [e]with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. 7 God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great [f]deliverance. 8 Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt. 9 Hurry and go up to my father, and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, “God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. 10 You shall [g]live in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children and your flocks and your herds and all that you have. 11 There I will also provide for you, for there are still five years of famine to come, and you and your household and all that you have would be impoverished.”’ 12 Behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth which is speaking to you. 13 Now you must tell my father of all my splendor in Egypt, and all that you have seen; and you must hurry and bring my father down here.” 14 Then he fell on his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck. 15 He kissed all his brothers and wept on them, and afterward his brothers talked with him.
16 Now when the [h]news was heard in Pharaoh’s house [i]that Joseph’s brothers had come, it [j]pleased Pharaoh and his servants. 17 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers, ‘Do this: load your beasts and [k]go to the land of Canaan, 18 and take your father and your households and come to me, and I will give you the [l]best of the land of Egypt and you will eat the fat of the land.’ 19 Now you are ordered, ‘Do this: [m]take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father and come. 20 Do not [n]concern yourselves with your goods, for the [o]best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’”
21 Then the sons of Israel did so; and Joseph gave them wagons according to the [p]command of Pharaoh, and gave them provisions for the journey. 22 To [q]each of them he gave changes of garments, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of garments. 23 To his father he sent [r]as follows: ten donkeys loaded with the [s]best things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and sustenance for his father [t]on the journey.
24 So he sent his brothers away, and [u]as they departed, he said to them, “Do not [v]quarrel on the journey.” 25 Then they went up from Egypt, and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob. 26 They told him, saying, “Joseph is still alive, and indeed he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.” But [w]he was stunned, for he did not believe them. 27 When they told him all the words of Joseph that he had spoken to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. 28 Then Israel said, “It is enough; my son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”
Joseph understood he was chosen for this. This was always God's plan and he had to ensure that it went forward.
We have to learn to use the gift to achieve the goals that God has for our lives. As men and women of integrity, God causes all things to work for good to those who love him and called according to His purposes. Now is the time for the church to disciple and to send. If we send them as disciples, we can change the world. We have the calling to be disciples and make disciples. When that happens, there will never be a lack of good people coming in.
RELATED:
BLINK THEOLOGY (ROMANS 9-11)
THE CALL TO DISCIPLESHIP (I)
THE PATH TO DISCIPLESHIP (II)
THE POWER OF DISCIPLESHIP (III)
THE SHAPE OF THE MOVEMENT OF GOD AND THE FOUNDATIONAL NATURE OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD
FINDING YOUR GIFT AND DESTINY IN GOD'S KINGDOM
