Church Planting (II)

Pr Michael Koh
17-08-2019

God has a move of God resident in you. The Holy Spirit is always original and fresh. He is not willing that you should perish. He fills you with new things that He wants to do: a small group, a discipling group or a church. There is a tendency to die in us. God can bring them to life. God wants to raise people up to be people who know their God.

Discipleship is best done in the context of church.

The devil wants to put no entry signs all the time. Church planting involves so much spiritual warfare and heaviness. It involves breaking through that barrier. It involves a certain amount of endurance and perseverance and being plugged into God. It leads us more into the spirit realm the more we pray. The Holy Spirit will drop into us little windows of that is happening in the spirit realm. God will begin to lead us to where the strongholds are.

Robert Chong of Sapphire nightclub wanted to start a fellowship. I asked him where was the darkest area. The more we prayed, the more we felt the oppression. When that happens, don't be discouraged. We prayed for an hour and a half. Robert watched us and he went along and did it. There was unity in the spirit and there was breakthrough. Then we set up a special evangelistic event in Sapphire. We preached the gospel and asked to pray for those with needs. Several bartenders were saved. The principality had been broken. We could sense the freedom that was there.

DJ Ganesan's wife was barren. We prayed for him and he now has two children.

The move of God has dimensions. There are worlds of intentions, visions and purpose. Healing and deliverance are great. But church planting is more towards discipleship. The church is supposed to be the healing centre of the world. But there is something that God wants to plant and connect. God has more for our disciples than we sometimes know. When our numbers are small enough to disciple one on one, there is spiritual excellence in mind to move them from a spiritual child to a spiritual young man to a spiritual father.

A lot of times we use the word "apostolic." When Paul says I am your spiritual father, he was actually wanting to reproduce after his own kind. We cannot just have bodies of people.

The nexus of Christianity is found in the cross. You must experience the life of Christ overcoming the flesh and sin in your own life.

Discipleship has to do with a certain regiment of practices that calls us to do the work of God in times like this so that every church that we plant and every work that we do has dimensions.

Unfortunately in many churches, the people are only following everybody else. We're just copycats.

Do the people know how to hear from God and overcome the devil? Are they able to move the power of God without respect to gifting? Can you move, if necessary, in particular to those gifts?

In church planting, we talk about the substance of God. It is not just form. Through practice, people are put on the spot. Eg. If there is a need for prophecy, prophesy. Church planting is a tremendous opportunity.

1 John 2:12-14 New King James Version (NKJV)
Their Spiritual State
12 I write to you, little children,
Because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.
13 I write to you, fathers,
Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
Because you have overcome the wicked one.
I write to you, little children,
Because you have known the Father.
14 I have written to you, fathers,
Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.
I have written to you, young men,
Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you,
And you have overcome the wicked one.

A young Christian needs to know they are accepted and received.

In church planting, everybody is important. If somebody doesn't turn up, everybody knows.

When you have a church plant, everybody gets to feel special. They matter. Minister to them in such a way they know the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The work of bringing a person into fully born again in the Spirit, that person needs to know how much God loves them.

1 Peter 2:2 New King James Version (NKJV)
2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow [a]thereby,

The Word has to come through from God. For spiritual babes, we teach them on how to do devotions. When they are young and their instincts are tender, they can learn how to hear from God. Their instincts are tuned. If the children do not grow up from listening to God, they would not have the spiritual base. If they have, wherever they go, they would make an impact. It is very important to develop good habits in them. God has called us as spiritual children to hear from God and what we hear from God is new and fresh. In discipleship, God prepares a group of people in times to come. Teach people to recognise the warmth of His presence. Spiritual children can sense.

A person who has been developed healthily wants to do stuff for God. They sense the Spirit of God within them is powerful and they want to be discipled. They want to make more impact. When a person becomes discipled in that sense, they would want to submit and to have accountability. A disciple is person who goes beyond a spiritual child. Invest your life in one person or two persons. As they pray in the spirit and wait upon the Lord, they begin to hone their attention. They learn a certain amount of discipline and after a while, it is no longer difficult. When they learn to pray through the heaviness, they know it for themselves that the heaviness will go and it becomes a lifestyle. They develop the practice and develop muscle memory and they know somehow they will break through.

Psalm 138:3 New King James Version (NKJV)
3 In the day when I cried out, You answered me,
And made me bold with strength in my soul.

They will know how not to proceed until that breakthrough happens.

In the Scriptures, God not only tells us directions, He also teaches us.

You as spiritual parents must have it first. Then your physical and spiritual children will think that this is normal.

In this young man stage, we want the Word of God to be in them.

In my devotions, I wait upon the Lord on a verse or a chapter. I wait upon it until it opens up. Let the Holy Spirit teach you. There are certain words and phrases that will open up. Something will open up and it becomes fresh.

For a young man, we want them to be able to wait upon the Word and it opens up. It is not just wanting them to just know the Word.

In discipleship, we are always meeting with people and wondering what God is doing in their lives. The Word of God is correcting them and the Word of God is being challenged.

As you are watching these young men, expect that they will go through trials. They are moving from a Bible person to one in which the Word is alive in them and becomes flesh and blood in their lives.

Leaders may look good on the outside. But under pressure, they crack and become ugly.

In church planting, we are raising a distinct kind of people.

RELATED:
Church Planting (I)

Church Planting (III)