My Vision For The First Nations Body of Believers
Let us take great heed that the spirit or religiosity, and the programs and agendas of the church does not mold us, but that we mold them.”
What The Church is but Most Times is
Not!
Eph 1:6 To the praise of the glory of his grace,
wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
. Eph 1:3 ¶ Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
Christ is All in All; The Church Must Reveal the Person of Christ.
·
Christianity is not about things, but about the revelation of the
person of Jesus Christ.
The more the revelation of the person of Jesus Christ the more will be our victories. The great responsibility of the church is to bring the fullness of the revelation of the person of Jesus Christ. Total revelation of the Christ takes the active participation of every member.
· Every member then, of a local body, must work to his or her peak performance through the use of spiritual gifts, callings, and ministries. There can be no “one-man show,” and no pews sitters.
v Every member must find his or her place in the body in terms of his or her ministry, giftings and callings and raised up in them. This is the job of the five fold ministry whom the local pastor heads.
v Thus the church can be seen as an entity that is in a continual process of being fitted together by every one’s ministry and gifts, being joined together in love and intimacy, and growing in to God’s Holy of Holies to manifest His glory.
v This fitting, joining, and growing to achieve spiritual growth continues as every member seize the head, which is Christ.
The Coming Separation Between
The Old Wine Skins of Our Present Day Church System, and the New Wine Believers,
which Move by the Voice of the Spirit in a Crucified Walk of Total Faith and Abandonment
to the Lord.
Mt 9:17
Neither do men put new wine into old {1} wine-skins: else the skins burst, and the
wine is spilled, and the skins perish: but they put new wine into fresh
wine-skins, and both are preserved.
·
The old wineskins represent our present religious system. It is our “church culture,” our “Christianisee”
ways that plagues much of our American churches and our lives as Christians.
·
The old wine skin is the system that exalts its theological
doctrines, doctrines of men, or church denominations as idols above the Word or
the Spirit of God. Such are the
churches that say that spiritual gifts are not for today. Or such are the churches that limit and
hinder the move of the Spirit as not to offend the “seeker”, who comes to their
Sunday services.
·
On the other hand the old wine skins also represents those
churches that are constantly seeking the supernatural, the blessings, the
instant miracles, the instant financial prosperity, the claiming and framing
from a “Santa Claus” God, without at the same time teaching its people a strong
and accurate foundation of Christian character through the Word of God and
embracing the cross of Christ.
·
The old wine skins represent the ministers that thrive on control
and one man shows. It is also the same
system that thrives with believers who are pew sitters. God has not created us to be spiritual
babies forever. God has a calling and a ministry for each of us.
·
The old wine skins represent the manipulation and hype that comes
out of our pulpit for money. It is also
made up of believers that think that their problems will be solved strictly by
a financial donation, and that instant miracles and solutions will come to them
because of it. God is not a Santa Claus
God. Most times a lack of financial
blessings are either a sign of testing, faith building, or that something is
wrong with our walks before God. We
need to find out what God is telling us.
·
We as First
Nations ministers and ministries must take the nationwide lead as model
ministries and churches that really care and go the extra mile in hearing the
voice of God and getting past the red tape of agendas and programs. It is our time and opportunity to be first
and with something that is of supreme importance in the eyes of God. Let us do it through example. Much of the
Anglo church is complacent and asleep in the light. Let us be different; let us
be patterns of what is right in the eyes of God.
·
This next word out of the book of Jonah was
given recently at my place of work at KCHF TV-11. It came through a minister from the nation of India. He came to this nation with a word for the
American church out of Jonah 1:6. The
American church is the “sleeper” found in the following scripture. Jonah 1:6 So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest
thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon
us, that we perish not.
·
God is grieved with the state of the disciples
that are coming forth out of our churches.
I saw them in the Spirit in a recent vision as powerless and shabby or
shaggy looking: Our churches and ministers are failing to teach the message of
the cross and of our embracing of it; of our dying to self, so that we can
become free. Secondly we are failing to
teach our sheep how to truly walk in the Spirit. Only through the voice of God can people be raised up to be true
disciples.
·
The frog burning in water: It
has been proven that we can boil a frog to death without its knowing it. We can put the frog into a pot of cold water
and very gradually turn up the heat.
The frog cannot discern the gradual turning up of the heat and
temperature and is boiled to its sure death.
So it is with the American church.
We are in danger of being boiled to death through our instantaneous “
Burger King “miracle mind set, and prosperity/ comfort mentality, without the
preaching of the cross of Christ. Jesus only had twelve
disciples, which produced a church of 120 people, which turned the world
around.
·
Notice
in John 4:23 that true service to God requires a balance between teaching the
word of God and the unhindered moving of the Spirit of God.
John 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall
worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to
worship him.
·
Pastors that promote only the supernatural
(miracles and blessings) without teaching the accuracy of the word of God in
order to produce godly character are in sin.
·
The
true blessings and miracles of God must always come from our embracing of the
cross. There can be no resurrection
without death. There can be no gain
without pain. Yet today we want
resurrection without death. This is the
teaching of prosperity and miracles found today along with our American
conception of a Santa Claus God.
·
On
the other hand, pastors that either say that spiritual gifts are not for today,
or are hindering the movement of the Spirit as to not offend the lost who come
to church are in sin as well.
·
In
Ephesians 5:26 the baptismal water by the word is talking about the rhema word
of God. The rehma word is the
revelatory word that comes through the use of spiritual gifts. Without the rhema word of verse 26 that
operates through the use of spiritual gifts, we remain an unglorious bride full
of defects, spots and wrinkles.
Eph
5:25 Married men, love your wives, as
Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself up to death for her; 26
in order to make her holy, cleansing her with the baptismal water by the
word,
that
He might present the Church to Himself a glorious bride, without spot or
wrinkle or any other defect, but to be holy and unblemished.
·
The American church has become a church that is
hungry for miracles but is still in the bondage of powerlessness and sin. Lasting miracles of God can only come when
we come to an end of ourselves and God forces himself to act on our behalf.
·
· Are
we to become a church that knows the ways of God or only desires to behold the
acts, miracles and blessings of God?
Ps 103:7
He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
·
We are unwilling as the American church to go up
to the high places that God has prepared for us. The high places represent the place of power and freedom. Moses had to climb up into the mountain of
the Lord, to seek His face and glory. Yet today as believers we are unwilling
to go up the mountain of the Lord. We
are losing our perspective of paying the price to acquire the power of God.
Deut
32: 12LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.
13
He made him ride on the high places of the
earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck
honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock
·
This entails sacrifice, challenge, and pain. We live in a country and in a church
atmosphere that attempts to run away from pain at all costs.
Ex
19:23 And Moses said unto the LORD, The
people cannot come up to mount Sinai: for thou chargedst us, saying, Set bounds
about the mount, and sanctify it.
·
This entails separation from the world!
Some God Given
Desires for First Nations Believers
2Co 13:4 for he was crucified through weakness, yet
he liveth through the power of God. For we also are weak {1} in him, but we shall live with him through the power of
God toward you. {1)
q
It is crucial that we live
a crucified and totally yielded life of obedience that is lived through and
reveals the Person of Christ.
o
The crucified life is one that has no rights to respond to claim
of future plans, prosperity, a career, reputation, or ministry.
o
Because he or she lives a crucified life unto the Lord they become
a clean channel for the Lord to flow through.
o
This is why it is crucial that the FN believer understand the
foundation of the cross.
o
The crucified believers’
only right is to be a bond slave to the Lord.
A bon slave is one that chose to stay and serve His or Her Master out of
pure love.
o
God makes Himself to take full care of the believer.
o
The crucified believer’s responsibility
is to hear the voice of God and obey so that God can move through him or her in
the fullness of His power. If our
control has died, then God controls us and execute His plans through in His
perfect timing and touches t many souls.
Joh
3:8 {1} The wind bloweth where it will, and thou
hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh, and whither it
goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. {1) Or The Spirit breatheth}
o
Our agendas and programs of the old wineskin have been crucified
and have died.
o
The new wine believer or church has no programs and agendas but a
life of obeying the Spirit of the living God, moment by moment and that with
instant joyful obedience.
o
As we do not know where the wind goeth so the believer whom would
live in this new wine must allow God to blow him or her where the Lord
desires.
o
He knows not where God will take him next. It is a life of exciting hardship,
challenge, living on the edge and unboring sacrifice.
o
As Mother Teresa said we become God’s pencil and God uses us in
tremendous ways.
o
The believer must not
have his or her whole life etched in stone.
Their main priority is to be attentive to the voice of the Master to
change their life, their plans, and their destiny for God at a moment’s
instance. God will do great things
through the believer that is at His disposal.
2Co 5:4
For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for
that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed
up of life.
o
The new wine believer’s plans, and future expectations have died
and swallowed up in the immensity of the greatness of God. The believer loses
himself to enter into the infinity and greatness of the heart and mind of God
for Him and for a lost world
2
Cor 2:15 For we are a sweet savor of
Christ unto God, in them that {1}
are saved, and in them that {2}
perish; {1)
Or are being saved 2) Or are perishing}
16 to the one a savor from death unto death; to
the other a savor from life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?
o
The new wine believer does not cry out for revival. He or she is a revival. Wherever they go God flows through Him in
unlimited power, at His perfect timing and executes His eternal plans to affect
many souls. God can do that because the new wine believer hears the voice of
the Spirit clearly. God uses him as
razor sharp instrument.
o
A spirit of revival or
judgment will follow this believer’s life based if his hearers obeys or disobey
the voice of God through him.
Heb 11:8
By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out unto a place
which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing
whither he went.
o
The new wine believer walks totally by faith so that God can take
him or her where He wants, use him as He wants, and when He wants.
o
The believer will then be living constantly from the greatness of
God and moment from moment excitement of the plans that God continues to
execute through Him. He has died to His
plans and has taken God’s plans upon himself.
o
He is totally surrendered to do his with his time, his ministry,
and his finances, as God will. God will
greatly use such as one as this. As it says if God knows He can channel it
through us He will give it to us.
o
The smallness of the plans
that this individual has for his life is swallowed up in the infinity of God’s
eternal great plans.
o
Faith must become a totally normal way of life. Faith cannot be taught. Faith must be lived out.
o
If we live by sight it will keep us bounded in the littleness of
our own comfort, our own safety, our own understanding schemes and our control
and mind. Our lives will always be
meager and limited bound by our frail human limitations
o
We must go through a time an extended financial want and testing
deep enough and long so as to learn how to place our trust in God and not
money.
o
We must come to place
where our whole dependency is upon God and not upon our money and our control.
Then God can lead us freely, He can powerfully act and perform through us. He can give to us more and more.
o
We will live out of His strength, His eternal plans that will
affect countless peoples for eternity and His power
2Co
1:9 But we had the sentence of death in
ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the
dead: {sentence:
or, answer}
o
Miracles, signs and wonders happen always when we come to this end
of ourselves.
o
This end forces God to act for us.
o
In this country we depend
so much on ourselves on our money and our comforts that God does not have to
act on our behalf. Hence we never see
His power. We live powerless and bored
lives.
o
This is why the American Christian prosperity message of
blessings, and miracles, and comfort can be so hurtful.
o
Christians can have so many problems with finances, because God
cannot bless them with much money. He
cannot trust us. We are too
alive!! Too much in control, too much
selfishness still plagues us. God fears that their hearts might stray from
Him.
o
True financial prosperity comes to believer who keeps whatever
money God tells him to keep and channels every other penny out according to the
voice of God instantly and joyfully.
Ch
22:14 Now, behold, in my trouble I have
prepared for the house of the LORD an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a
thousand thousand talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight; for
it is in abundance: timber also and stone have I prepared; and thou mayest add
thereto. {trouble:
or, poverty}
o
A three billion dollar contribution just in gold!
1)
As the Lord tried to encourage this young warrior with His words, nothing took
place. This Native man continued discouraged and despondent prostrated on the
soil of the ground.
Then
came the point of personal contact and calling from the Lord. The Lord said to him, “Get Up”! The
warrior responded. Slowly he got up as
a giant being aroused. However there
were some basic differences. It was one of the most painful things he had ever
done. The pain, the struggle, the
exhaustion, the whole attempt to get up is beyond words to describe. It was very hard! …. But not
impossible! The pain was relatively
short-lived! After this young man got
up, powerful transitions on all levels and all sides, which I could not discern
as to what they were, took place in his life.
2) As this
visionless warrior contemplated a television set, images started to be
displayed to him of people through out the world more needy and more hurting
than himself. The Gamines of Colombia,
South America; these are the street children so covered with dirt and grime
that you cannot identify them, and those families in the Philippines that live
on top of the garbage dumps. The people
in Africa that are either dying from starvation, or don’t even have a well from
where they can drink water. Then I saw
a picture of the whole globe and knew that God is calling us there. Suddenly, supernatural healing and
deliverance started to come to the warrior apart from human hands, deliverance,
or personal ministry given unto him. I
saw a large Kenneth Copeland Bible convention filled with many Anglo and Afro
American people. They all had their
Bibles opened and were intently looking at them. Surprisingly the Native warrior standing there in the process of
now getting supernaturally healed also seemed to be bypassing the need to
attend these conferences and seminars.
God was doing something supernatural in his life that bypassed his need
for much personal ministry and Bible teaching, if he would be willing to obey
the call of the Lord to be sent as a missionary abroad and around the
world. I believe the word “My Turn” is
God speaking to the NA saying to him or her “It is Your Turn!” The call would take some conflict. This is the end of the prophecy. I would like to make some comments to this
prophecy. I want to title the prophecy
“ The Last Shall be First”. If we
remember the words of Jesus, “the last shall be first” is a spiritual principle. A principle is a law. A law tells us that under certain conditions
other corresponding conditions will always come to pass. Thus, those that have been last to be raised
up or used by the Lord because of circumstances, the attacks of the enemy etc.
shall be first, once they are raised up.
Let me further explain. When I
was growing up in Miami I spent nine years as a celibate unmarried believer. Almost all of my friends got married before
me and I was left to the end. I became upset with the Lord because it seemed
that I had been more committed and obedient than all of my friends, and yet I
was left at to the end. However when I
finally met my lovely wife Mary and got married it has been like a marriage
made in heaven. We have fit like two gloves
together hand in hand. We got our
family raised and built up before most other couples did, and were one of the
very first families to be commissioned and sent out by the Lord from our
church. Truly it was the principle of
the last shall be first. We can also
see this law work in the life of Joseph when he was thrown into the dungeon and
sold into slavery. Though his brothers
thought he was gone, and Joseph went through untold suffering, suddenly God
exalted him to be first. So was with
David. He seemed to be finished when
Saul tried to assassinate him so many times.
Suddenly God exalted him to be king.
Moses was the same way. An old
man of 80, all vision and hope gone that he would deliver Israel; suddenly God
exalted him to the top. I have been a
believer for twenty-one years. My
deliverance and my healing have been a long process over time. Twenty-one years
later I am still being delivered. I
cannot tell you how many Bible conferences and seminars I have been too. I have been truly amazed at the suddenness
of deliverance, healing, and the ministerial calling being offered to Native
believers now at this time when it is “Their Turn”. Truly God is executing the principle of the “last shall be first”. God is ready to bypass much of the process
and time that we as Anglos have had to go through in order to be raised
up. Secondly I am impressed that in two
prophecies the believer is rightfully in his or her regalia. God is saying. When I created you, I created you as
warriors. You are and shall always be
warriors. Secondly, and as we know the
Indian culture is from the Lord. The
white missionaries were deceived to try to take it away. Thirdly the Native believer is divinely
equipped to be tremendously effective missionaries. Why? Because of what they
have suffered, they are spiritually prepared and fit to minister to so many
that are so deeply hurting. Most Anglos
have not suffered like that. They
cannot minister on most levels to these suffering ones like Native
believers. In conclusion, prophecy will
only be prophecy until it is acted upon. We can talk and talk about it. Only
when it is acted upon, the full manifestation and understanding of it will come
forth. Where are the mighty Native men
and women warriors that will take to heart the conflict and the challenge of
the Lord’s call in getting up and going into all the world as a witness to the
great principle of the “last shall be first” executed upon a whole people
group, to the admiration of the world and the glory of our Lord? What Satan
meant for evil God has turned around for good!
I have been truly amazed at the suddenness of deliverance, healing, and
the ministerial calling being offered to Native believers now at this time when
it is “Their Turn”. Truly God is
executing the principle of the “last shall be first”. God is ready to bypass much of the process and time that we as
Anglos have had to go through in order to be raised up. Secondly I am impressed that in two
prophecies the believer is rightfully in his or her regalia. God is
saying. When I created you, I created
you as warriors. You are and shall
always be warriors. Secondly, and as we
know the Indian culture is from the Lord.
The white missionaries were deceived to try to take it away. Thirdly the Native believer is divinely
equipped to be tremendously effective missionaries. Why? Because of what they
have suffered, they are spiritually prepared and fit to minister to so many
that are so deeply hurting. Most Anglos
have not suffered like that. They
cannot minister on most levels to these suffering ones like Native
believers. In conclusion, prophecy will
only be prophecy until it is acted upon. We can talk and talk about it. Only
when it is acted upon, the full manifestation and understanding of it will come
forth. Where are the mighty Native men
and women warriors that will take to heart the conflict and the challenge of
the Lord’s call in getting up and going into all the world as a witness to the
great principle of the “last shall be first” executed upon a whole people
group, to the admiration of the world and the glory of our Lord? What Satan
meant for evil God has turned around for good! be truly changed.
3
)From this prophecy I feel that God has released a unique anointing for First
Nations women that choose to take a real hold of Jesus and press forward into
the things of God. The exultant joy and gladness are signs of the power and
glory of God flowing within the women who have been marvelously healed,
delivered, and set free. I have been impressed that there have been a number of
recent prophecies given by the Lord that show a tremendous amount of deep,
thorough, and miraculous deliverance, healing, and restoration available to
First Nations believers. It is the principle
of the “last shall be first”. Where the
enemy inflicted so much pain and torment, the Lord is now releasing a much
greater abundance of supernatural healing that is bypassing the factor of time.
These believing women were busy about the Father’s work and in constant motion
as they were being sent out abroad and around the world.
The Un-molded First Nations Believers
·
In
God’s economy the last shall be first.
There is no doubt in our minds that the Native American population
qualifies well for this position. On
numerous occasions we have been deeply touched by the beauty and spirituality
of the Native believer. Their
sensitivity to the Lord, their tears, humility, and simplicity, is beautiful to
behold. Some of the most anointed
preaching that we have witnessed has come from the hearts and mouths of Native
American preachers. Our Native American friends have a deep hunger for the Lord
emanating from a sincerity, humility, simplicity, and soberness for the things
of God. Native worship to the Lord is
unsurpassed in beauty and anointing. We
believe that the Lord gifted the Native American with a deep spirituality, and
a powerful “Joshua” spirit that would conquer and possess the land, thereby
glorifying the Lord. Satan, sin, and
the world have tried their hardest to rob from these precious people their God
given destiny. It would not surprise us
that if in this end time revival, God would raise the Native body as one of its
main participants, if we truly let Him.