Ministers of The Gospel
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· 8 viewsBeing servants of The Word
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Now Saul was consenting to his death.
At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.
As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.
Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them.
From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
When Jesus calls us to be a part of His Kingdom, there is a definite starting point.
For those of us who trust in Jesus and what He has and Is saying, He tells us there is a distinct difference in being the offspring (children) of G-d, and the offspring (children) of this world authored by hasatan.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
We are either children that live by the dictates, passions, and desires of this current world or age, which is governed by lucifer/hasatan through our corrupted human nature, or, we are the children/offspring of our Righteous and Holy Creator Who ALWAYS does what’s right, loves what’s right, and hates wickedness.
As the offspring of satan and this world, we live by one main rule, “if it feels good, do it!”
We only have to “follow our hearts” and what gives us the maximum amount of pleasure.
It’s not really a hard life, initially, but it eventually brings some heartbreaking outcomes.
This is the way of our world.
As the offspring (children) of G-d however, we have to learn to lives by a whole different set of principles and instructions.
The blessing in that is as we learn them with our natural mind, Jesus by His Spirit, will write those principles in our inmost being, commonly referred to as our hearts.
By this taking place, we begin to change from the inside out due to the change in our understanding.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.
Ezekiel 36:
Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
Our G-d and Creator desires and delights to help us to change, but He can only do so when we ALLOW Him to help us.
You can’t help someone that doesn’t want or accept it.
Unlike living our lives according to our human nature, living this life of change is not an easy one.
It requires us to challenge our wrong ways of thinking and understanding that we have been taught from birth and have learned as we grew from our good, bad, and ugly experiences (example).
It requires us to learn to trust Jesus as He exposes the unrighteous and unholy strongholds of thinking and feeling about a multitude of areas that make up our lives.
We have to learn how to keep our fallen human nature in check through prayer, fasting, G-d’s Instructions (His Word), and His Spirit.
By these, we begin to change.
We begin to look at life differently, The Church Differently, The Saints differently, at Jesus differently, the unsaved differently.
This change of view of life will result in a changing of how we live our lives, they truly begin to look like Jesus’ in character and desires.
As all these areas in our lives change and we strive to solidify them, we become more knowledgeable and effective servants/servers of The Good News of The Kingdom of G-d.
So what exactly are we sharing with people?
Why are we telling people about G-ds’ Kingdom, and what is it?
Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, “The secret which the king has demanded, the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, and the soothsayers cannot declare to the king. But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream, and the visions of your head upon your bed, were these: As for you, O king, thoughts came to your mind while on your bed, about what would come to pass after this; and He who reveals secrets has made known to you what will be. But as for me, this secret has not been revealed to me because I have more wisdom than anyone living, but for our sakes who make known the interpretation to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your heart.
“You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome. This image’s head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
“This is the dream. Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king. You, O king, are a king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory; and wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all—you are this head of gold. But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others. Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold—the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure.”
In one aspect, The Kingdom of G-d refers to the tie when Jesus will return and put down all forms of government and establishes His own government throughout this world.
It will be a new age for mankind.
In this kingdom there will be no unrighteousness and unholiness ( no corruption or false beliefs).
In speaking of that time, John the disciple and Apostle of Jesus tells us this:
Revelation 21:
Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”
And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
There will be peace because people will be living right as our Creator meant it to be.
Sickness is eradicated, wars, etc.
People will watch out for on another’s best interest, which is humility. Putting others before yourself.
Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the earth.
But how do we know that this is true?
For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us. Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
2 Corinthians 1:
The Gift and Presence of G-d’s Spirit in our lives individually and among us collectively when we come together as a Church is one aspect of our evidence.
Matthew 10:
And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.
These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.
As we grow and mature in Jesus by our spiritual disciplines and He begins to demonstrate signs, wonders, and miracles through us individually outside of our services, it serves as PROOF to the unbelievers.
Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. And there was great joy in that city.
But there was a certain man called Simon, who previously practiced sorcery in the city and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great, to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is the great power of God.” And they heeded him because he had astonished them with his sorceries for a long time. But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized.
Acts 8:5-
It is because of the power that Jesus demonstrated through His disciples that people believed, that’s what He gave it for.
Acts 1:
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
This was G-d’s desire from long ago however.
When Isra’el came to Mount Sinai, G-d said they would be a kingdom of priests unto Him if they obeyed Him, as children to their Father.
Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.”
Exodus 19:
G-d ;ater took some of the Anointing of His Spirit that was on Moshe, and placed it on those who would HELP Moshe with the 2 million plus people of the nation.
Under Moshe, when Isra’el was set free from their slavery in Egypt, G-d took some of the Anointing of His Spirit that was on Moshe, and placed it on those who would HELP Moshe with the 2 million plus people of the nation.
So the Lord said to Moses: “Gather to Me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them; bring them to the tabernacle of meeting, that they may stand there with you. Then I will come down and talk with you there. I will take of the Spirit that is upon you and will put the same upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you may not bear it yourself alone. Then you shall say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat; for you have wept in the hearing of the Lord, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt.” Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat. You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have despised the Lord who is among you, and have wept before Him, saying, “Why did we ever come up out of Egypt?” ’ ”
And Moses said, “The people whom I am among are six hundred thousand men on foot; yet You have said, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat for a whole month.’ Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, to provide enough for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to provide enough for them?”
And the Lord said to Moses, “Has the Lord’s arm been shortened? Now you shall see whether what I say will happen to you or not.”
So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord, and he gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tabernacle. Then the Lord came down in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was upon him, and placed the same upon the seventy elders; and it happened, when the Spirit rested upon them, that they prophesied, although they never did so again.
But two men had remained in the camp: the name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad. And the Spirit rested upon them. Now they were among those listed, but who had not gone out to the tabernacle; yet they prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”
So Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, one of his choice men, answered and said, “Moses my lord, forbid them!”
Then Moses said to him, “Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!”
Numbers 11:16-29
Moshe wanted all the people to be able to prophesy, not for themselves, but that they might be effective in reaching the nations around them and turning them to The One and Only True G-d.
Paul says that as Born Again believers in Jesus Christ, we have fulfilled Moshe’s wish.
Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.
But He also says this about the use of spiritual gifts among the Saints
There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.
For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:
These things are to be balanced in true love that comes by The Holy Spirit
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:1-
We should want to see our Brothers and Sisters and the sinner blessed by the gifts of The Spirit, we are not given them because we’re something special.
We should want to see our Brothers and Sisters and the sinner blessed by the gifts of The Spirit, we are not given them because we’re something special.
They are to show how Powerful and Special Jesus Is!
So in closing, lets go back to the opening Scripture and add one more
Now Saul was consenting to his death.
At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.
As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.
Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them.
Acts 8
Mark 16:15-
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
Pastor is not the only Preacher in the house.
A Preacher is literally a Proclaimer of something.
We are proclaiming the fast approaching time of Jesus’ return and the establishing of His Kingdom.
When this time comes there will not be anymore chances for repentance.
This is not a fate we should want to see anyone fall into, even our enemies.
So proclaim the Good News of The Kingdom of G-d!
Lay hands on the sick that they may recover!
Cast out demons!
Be patient with yourself and with one another, we are all still growing.
Pray, fast, read, study, Preach!