We need to be careful coz God is saying something, are we really humble to listen to what God is telling us!! its a qn for both of usThere is a crisis in among the Spirit driven churches today! It is a crisis not of my church or your church, but it is a crisis of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ internationally! This crisis is brought about by the shortage of properly trained, disciplined, right spirited and completely Spirit filled leaders!Let’s look at the basis of the problem: Jesus in speaking to His disciples (leaders) said in John 15:1-8 (NIV): 1"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.See? Jesus is the vine! He is the source of support for the entire vine plant, branches and fruit, and He provides direction, food and nutrients for sustenance, growth and reproduction of new believers or fruit in the church. The disciples or His leaders carry forward all of the things Jesus provides to the fruit, and they bear the weight and growth of the fruit reproducing the vine. Therefore, it is clear that Jesus is the source of everything, and the leaders are the branches that hold / possess the fruit (new believers), and channel from Jesus all that is needed by the new believers for their success in Christ! Can you see the importance of the leadership in this parable? Absent good branches, the vine cannot produce fruit; therefore, absent good leaders, the church cannot produce new believers. The plateau in growth of new believers in churches is the result of few good church leaders! If we are to stimulate the growth in the church, we must stimulate the growth of good leaders!The Spirit movement began in the 19th and 20th Centuries by people reclaiming a lost or at least dwindling revelation of Biblical power for growth of the church through the growth of the individual believer brought about by the empowering of that believer by the Holy Ghost! We took literally the word of Jesus in Acts 1:4-8 (KJV) (bold emphasis mine MLL.); 4And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. 5For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. 6When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? 7And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. 8But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. The Spirit movement since 1886 has laid claim to this revelation of Acts 1:4-8 promise and experience, and it has grown wonderfully and powerfully to the point as many as 480 million adherents of this teaching are living world wide! The Lord Jesus Christ our God has by the Holy Spirit grown His church to this tremendous level, but there has been an attack at the very core of our movement, and we must regain our Spirit distinctives, or our existence as a people of a “more perfect” Biblical revelation will be lost, and the church of Jesus Christ could well be thrown into another dark age!The chief attack against the Spirit movement is an attack against our belief that the Holy Spirit comes upon people, and fills them and empowers them for service. Look again at Acts 1:4-8 (KJV) above; now, here is how I would paraphrase this scripture to you! “Wait where you are until the promise of the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and immerses you in the Spirit; it will not be long, so do not worry about what is on your mind, but wait until you will receive power from this experience to take your testimony of what Jesus did for you to your family, neighbors, people in your nation and the world!” Classic people of the Spirit movement believe in receiving this impartation of the Spirit, and one should stop everything in life until this manifestation of the Spirit is accomplished, and evidenced by the recipient speaking with other tongues. These distinctives are being left behind at an alarming rate! The distinctives that have made the Spirit movement successful are as follows: One should: 1. Repent and be saved. 2. Baptized in water. 3. Sanctified, and sin remitted. 4. Baptized with the Holy Spirit filling the individual with the Spirit. 5. Have evidence of Spirit infilling by speaking in an unknown tongue. 6. Be empowered by the Holy Spirit with Spirit gifts. 7. Be come a “Timothy”, student of the word serving beneath an experienced teacher. The attack on the Spirit movement is one brought about by several forms of spiritual laziness; some believe it not necessary for one to have the fullness of salvation and sanctification, be filled with the Spirit, stop everything until one is filled, or speak in tongues. Each of these ideas bring along their own curse! Along with all of these “watering down of the power of God” thoughts, the church has adopted the “lets find middle ground with everyone” philosophy, so we don’t seem to be so weird to other people with whom we share the planet. We want so much to be like everyone else that we don’t recognize that God has called us out of being like everyone else in the world to change us to be like Him, and that will unequivocally make us to be different than everyone else! One of the most insidious attacks on the Spirit movement comes from the heart of man’s pride; many have come to believe that we can grow the church through secular planning, surveys and polls, architectural design, and thinking ahead. Many large churches have been built through the use and means of these disciplines. Unfortunately, that is not how Jesus said he would build his church! Jesus said He would build His church on a rock of Spirit revelation! He told Peter His church would be built on this one premise alone … that Jesus is “the Christ the Son of the Living God”! Look at that whole exchange in Matthew 16; 13When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" 14They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." 15"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" 16Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 17Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." 20Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ. Jesus told Peter that His church would be made up of people, when those people received a revelation from His Father in heaven! You see, Jesus’ church can only be built by supernatural means! It can only be built by a revelation that one received from the Father, which incidentally comes by the Holy Spirit! The more it thought that common means through the mind of man can be used to build churches, the more these powerless machines that grind up hearts of men will me manufactured, and sold as a poor, dumb substitute for the real thing! A living church of the living God! Spirit-driven leaders are needed to build Spirit-driven churches! We need people that will totally embrace the fullness of the distinctives of the Spirit movement; that accomplished, Spirit-driven leaders need to really learn to do the Daily Disciplines of the Spirit People: 1. Pray always in the Spirit and pray with the understanding also.2. Praise the Lord at all times!3. Read your Bible!4. Be a giver of Oats! (Offerings, Alms, Tithes, Sacrifices)5. Attend all the meetings of the church!6. Be teachable Timothy!7. Share your faith! Spirit leaders need to endeavor to avoid certain popular poisons! Here are a few: 1. “Strong Delusion and Distraction” are poisons that walk together and color the mind with ideas of things that will never be. These ideas are brought to distract from a calling of God to keep that calling from fulfillment. 2. Being “Puffed Up” comes from thinking more of one’s self than one ought. These are often novices promoted too soon! Many of the puffed up crowd will not follow a calling to serve a Paul without a certain paycheck! 3. Being “Choked Out” comes to those that let the cares of the world “choke out” their call to serve and to even follow Christ! 4. The “Careless and Common” are poisons that lead one to see how close to the way the people of the world walk, and fail to esteem their calling and holiness. With Spirit-driven leaders activated, Spirit churches will grow! The activation of these leaders in highly Spirit charged praise and worship and revival! Revival is actually a cycle! It is a cycle in which leaders are stirred and activated to make fruit. Fruit is stirred and activated to leadership, and their leadership is activated for more fruit! All that God has made is made with self stimulating and self perpetuating cycles! Life cycles of plants and animals, or water from clouds to earth and back again each are examples of how God’s cycles are self stimulating, and self perpetuating! The “revival cycle” is proof it operates after a God design!We evangelize to disciple. We disciple to train in ministry. We train in ministry to evangelize and disciple! Activated, “Spirit-driven Leaders are needed to perpetuate the Spirit movement! We activate them by revival! Revival causes fruit to come forth! Fruit makes the vine bigger and with more tendrils! Hey, no wonder we need revival! No wonder the Lord told us not to be weary (tired) of doing well! He wants the revival cycle to keep on rolling! We can defeat the leadership crisis in the Spirit movement by activating a real Holy Ghost revival! Let’s you and I begin; join me!
Yours sincerely
Tumwesigye Daniel
ADDRESS: P.O.BOX 35587 KAMPALA UGANDA,
WEB. www.destinycalls.org www.freewebs.com/tumdaniel
where the Spirit of God is!!! there`s Liberty!! hahahahaha!!!! God knows you and He has good Plans for you!! Jeremaiah 1:5 & 29:11
Turning the Negative Into Postive
Huge Tree
A few years ago I happened to be stressed and depressed at that point I needed no body to talk to me in any way, so I decided to take a walk in a nearby park/gardens/compound, I laid down looking above in the sky, seeing the shining blue-white clouds, I begun asking God, “ If you do exist come out of those clouds and meet me now?” from that moment I don’t know how I sat and my eyes were now focusing on a nearby huge tree which was just in front of me, I looked at the leaves, the branches, the stem and the roots, since some roots were on top of the ground,
The Lord had to drive me back before the plantations took place, at the beginning someone got the seed and planted the tree, even if it took time to germinate he became patience with it until germination, he was filled with joy and happiness for that, thereafter, the shoot became fragile and sun was shining day by day, so he had to protect it, by every day getting a wateringcan and water his growing tree, where he realized that enemies could attack it, he had to create a perimeter wall for its protection and a shade to prevent it from the daily sun and exposure, this took some good many years until now, look at the trees in your compound, I believe some trees were planted by someone whom you even don’t know may be you planted it by yourselves but the care you used to give it is not the same as today, now here we’re enjoying everything bit of it, When you come to some parts of Africa basically in the villages, when the leaves fall off the trees they are used as lighting papers to start up a cooking stove and atime when the branches fall off, they are used as energy, and also for building, other trees are medicine also, they become helpful but we can’t know how they came into existence.
After going through that revelation and vision I checked myself and begun questioning myself : When I was a baby my parents used to take care of me day by day, I was infact breast fed on the palms of my mother, they bathed me always, when I became sick they took responsibilities to see that my health is in good conditions,
I remember, during Christmas seasons we used to go visit our grandparents in villages once in a while, One time my mother and I together with my brothers and sisters paid a visit to our grandmother, upon reaching there, we all the children were sent in the grass shushed kitchen, I took step to cooking milk, I was given a kettle then went to the cow and the person responsible of milking the cow gave me the milk in the kettle hence to the firewood local stove, after it was fully cooked, I carried the kettle which was too hot, as I was approaching the door way to the living room, I fell down and the whole blazing milk poured onto my right arm, I screamed not because of the pain I was feeling but because of the fear that I was going to be beaten because of pouring the milk, so my grandma ran to me and am glad that time none of them beat me. They went to the bushes and got all several herbs to find ways of healing my arm as soon as possible, they all seemed not working, the arm begun rotting and I could see the bones inside, every day I couldn`t sleep but cry, for sure I thought that my hand was to be chopped off, someone in the village brought an idea that when you get the fur of a rabbit and pour onto it, it will gain more meat and heal, since we were in the village, they ran and got the fur, poured it on my hand but it worsened everything but instead it produced a lot of purse, which could stink and nobody would even come near me, I almost died in the village because of ignorance, thereafter I was brought back to Kampala the main City of Uganda, and I was treated and healing came, but all this care came by my parents.
Well, your parents could be treating you bad now, forsook you, but one thing I can tell you, since they persisted and carried your pregnancy until your birth, they remain your parents, recently have been watching ONE TREE HILL- SERIES: this movie teaches you how to handle love regardless of any thing Love shall be there, you may stubbornly act as if you don’t have love inside of you but its there, you just have to dig it and use it.
Now am grownup my parents don’t have to carry me so I can feed, I leave by my own, just like the tree, its on its own now, when it rains, it rains on it, when the sun shines, it shines on it, many enemies approach it, and use it in any way but it remains standing.
In this state what I do, I turn every negative into positive, in many ways when the enemy comes to you, a times we say: may be God doesn’t exist but he remains there and He always watches over us, when the sun shines on the tree you may say that the trees are going to burn but instead they are growing with turgidity, infact they are gaining minerals for a process. Look at the differences in plants, during summer, winter, spring seasons, at every stage the trees, plants look beautiful,
Just like humans at every stage we look awesome for the testimony of God.
Hope you are encouraged
written by Tumwesigye Daniel
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
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2 comments:
He who has the son has life.
Good work for the uplifting words of life.
Dieu te benir mon frere taomichou@yahoo.fr
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