Continuing, Michael writes: God
called us first to declare His excellency. Our calling is not to be loyal
to the "church." Rather our call is to be loyal to our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. People need Jesus Christ before they need the
church. We're “born again” into the body of Christ, not into the local
denomination. "Churchianity" can be a bloody battlefield. Only
Jesus Christ is the perfect pastor. Although the assembly of God's people is
good thing, going to Church is like going to the grocery store. You stock
up on a week's worth of food, but you bring it home to share it with your
family. Our relationship with our families is a personal moment by moment
intimate fellowship. God has called fathers first to be ministers in their
own homes to their own families. Is that happening? God's exhortation is
to feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not
of necessity, but willingly; not for filthy lucre (covetousness), but of a ready mind.
In our culture, the question is, "Has the church influenced the culture or has the culture influenced the church?" In order to win the world do you have to be like the God-rejecting world system? No. Holy means being set apart from that lawless system for God’s righteous purposes. According to Romans 12, we are not to be squeezed into the world's mold ...
Romans 12:2 “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of
your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve
what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Our job is to rebuild the family altar ... to put God first in our homes, where fellowship is central. As ambassadors for Christ, we have been called to build our homes of holy light as an embassy for God's kingdom in a world of darkness. The ambassador is the highest ranking government official sent from his home government to a foreign land to represent his homeland. The embassy is a piece of the ambassador's homeland in a foreign realm. As ambassadors in our neighborhoods, God has called us to represent the kingdom of heaven. Our homes are embassies ... outposts of heaven in the kingdom of darkness. The calling is not to change the worldly government, but rather to change people's hearts by bringing a peace treaty from the Prince of Peace in His gospel of Salvation. As ambassadors, our job is to love one another as Christ loved the church and tell them the gospel, while glorifying God.
Revival is not "changing the world." Revival starts with changing our hearts and our families. Revival is a one on one exponential explosion to the power of three. Jesus did not change the world by ministering to the thousands. He called 12 disciples to be "fishers of men." Who are your three and who are your twelve? As fishers of men, God called His disciples to be "nodes in the network of His fishing net." The first step is to pray for your neighborhood. Then go knock on your neighbors' doors to see who's hungry for prayer and fellowship. We're looking for those who say, "You're an answer to my prayer for God to send someone to tell me about Jesus Christ." We have been called as His ambassadors to serve, not to be served. As ambassadors of our heavenly homeland, our mission is this, "Ask not what my country can do for me, ask what I can do for my country."
May God richly bless you.
Your brother in Christ, Michael
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