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