YOUR KINGDOM RULES!

So yesterday was amazing! Cory Harrison came to visit just for a day and he taught a class on mission. Instead of talking about hypothetical mission for the Army, he decided to talk about practical things we could use in mission. He spoke about the history of the church referencing Ephesians 4:11 and the five offices essential "to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowlegde of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." (vs 12-13) Of the five offices mentioned in verse 11, the church as a whole has only embraced the last three in the list: evangelists, pastors and teachers. Pastors came back into the church with Martin Luther's reformation. Evangelists came next with William Booth and then, with the start of Sunday School, the office of teacher was reintroduced to the church. (Again, he was speaking of recognized offices in the church as a whole). However, the first two mentioned in the verse - apostles and prophets - have not come back yet.

Then, Cory began to speak about prophecy specifically. He referenced 1 Corinthians 14 where we are commanded to "eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy." (vs1) And we are told "...you can all prophesy...so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged." (vs 31) In chapter 14, Paul also makes a point of explaining why prophecy should be desired by believers. It works inside the church and outside the church. It builds up the body of believers (vs 4) and causes what Cory called "face-plant evangelism." Which comes from verses 24 and 25 where Paul tells the Corinthians that if an unbeliever comes in to where they are and they are all prophesying, that unbeliever will "fall down and worship God, exclaiming, 'God is really among you!'" Cory told us about something that happened at his church in order to illustrate this point: It involved a teenage girl who was a self-proclaimed athiest. She came to one of their meetings and, afterwards, three people who had never met her before prophesyed over her. She went home and began telling her friends, "I was wrong - God is real." The day after she received the words of prophecy, she brought one of her friends to the person who had taken her to Cory's church and asked that person to tell her friend how to become a Christian. She hadn't accepted Christ, but the power of God caused her to become an evangelist nonetheless.

Cory spoke for a while and it was so good! God was among us - speaking to us! When he finished, since we had no set schedule for that day because our classes have ended for this term and we're about to go on Thanksgiving break, Cory asked, "Now what do we do?" And I (who hate hearing the Word and not acting on it) said, "Let's do it! Let's prophesy over each other right now!" So, Cory set a chair in the middle of the room and we came, one by one, and sat in it for the rest of the group to prophesy over us. There is no possible way to describe what it was like - especially in writing. Suffice to say that it was incredible! God spoke through Scripture verses He placed in our minds, words He gave us and visions (some pretty crazy visions too!) It was awesome! And so encouraging. I'm excited about what He said to me. I could probably write a whole nother blog twice as long as this about one word which was spoken to me. Both Nathan Holt and Cory told me that my ministry will not be according to the economy and rules of the world! I live by the economy and rules of the Kingdom! How cool is that!

Yes, Lord! Your Kingdom come! Your will be done (by Your rules and Your economy) - on earth - in my life and ministry (and everyone else's for that matter) as it is in Heaven!

Abby Hartman

Dance With God

"Everything is meaningless if not done for me." God said that to me once. And I must have lost sight of it because He had to remind me of that tonight. He reminded me that I am selfish, lazy, prideful, faithless and self-seeking. A word God gave me before I moved to Chicago was servanthood. He asked me to serve others. I realized today that I don't serve even my brothers and sisters that I spend countless hours with each day. I've lost sight of them because I'm so involved with myself. If I cannot love and serve my roommate, a fellow believer in Christ, how am I to love the beggar on the street?

Jesus tells us the greatest commandment is to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength" and then He tells us the second greatest commandment is to "love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:37-39)

It's as simple as that. Love God. Love your neighbor. Simple. Very simple. It really doesn't get much simpler than that. So why do we make it so complicated?

I don't love God. I don't know how to. It's been my desire and prayer that I would fall head-over-heals in love with God. I don't believe I can fall in love with God without His help. He is love so I need Him to show me how to love.

Let's tie these two together. Serve. Love. I believe, and am being taught, that to love is to serve. To serve is to love. Out of my love for God I should desire then to serve Him. And as I serve Him I am showing Him that I love Him. Simple.

I don't serve my friends, the ones I spend countless hours with each day, because I don't love them. Why don't I love them? Because I'm so involved with myself. I'm quite a selfish person, thinking of myself most of the time. It's not about me though. It's not. It never has been. It never will be.

God is calling me to strip off and lay aside the sin that so easily entangles me. Pride. Selfishness. Laziness. Apathy. And He is asking me to clothe myself in Him. To put on compassion, love, joy, peace, kindness, humility.

This isn't just a me thing but the community in which I live is struggling with the same thing. We're pretty selfish. That's a harsh word to take, but it's true. How can we function as a church, as a body of believers, if we're thinking of only ourselves?

Another word. Pray. We do not pray enough. We do not pray enough for the city in which we live. We do not pray enough for the world in which we live. Prayer is the key to God's heart. I heard that once. The more we pray the more we know God.

We are not walking with God.

I have been reading this book, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places written by Eugene Peterson, and he mentions 'dancing with God'. I can't even begin to describe to you how powerful those words are to me .... 'dancing with God'. My only prayer is that as you read those words God will give you revelation of what it means. I don't even know what it means yet. I'm still chewing on it. But if you could imagine dancing with God, being apart of everything He does. Letting Him lead you in all you do. Never letting go. A dance that never ends.

I have a desire to dance with God. I pray that you would too. I pray that the church would dance with God. Because, whatever it means to dance with God, we are not doing it. He desires to dance with us. I have this vision in my head right now ....

I see a high school gymansium. The lights are low. There are streamers hanging from the ceiling and music is playing in the background. In the center of the gym I see God. He is standing there, holding out his hand, in my direction. I cannot see myself, but I know I am sitting in a chair up against the wall along with the rest of the church. We see Him, but we are not taking His hand. He is waiting. He has been waiting for a long time.

If we only knew the beauty of the life we would have if only we took His hand and let Him lead us in this dance. But we're scared, we're lazy, self-seeking, prideful and so we don't take His lead.

I want to know what this dance is. I want to know the beauty of dancing with my God. So whatever it takes, whatever it means, I am going to let Him lead me in this dance. This dance is more than you can imagine. This dance is bigger than you think. This dance will change your life and the life of the world around you.

Ask God about it. Seek Him out and ask Him about this dance.

I urge you to dance with God.

-Rebecca Lewis