| ReadBibleAlive.com | |
Theme: Faith Church |
|
|
|
These
notes explain the basis for encouraging the whole church to enter into
personal prayer ministry as an expression of faith. Put in its simplest
form it is how to encourage and prepare as many of the people of God as
possible to become those who would pray for others, and listen to God
as they do so.
Contents
•
PART ONE: The Basics about Faith
•
PART TWO: Problems to be
Faced
•
PART THREE:
The Learning Process
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
PART
ONE: The Basics about Faith
1.1
Summary
Starting
Point ------------------- Process -------------------------- End Point
A
church that talks A people who minister to
Signs, wonders & lives
but never does the one another & do the works transformed as the the works of Jesus of Jesus. kingdom of God is
expressed &
expanded
Note:
the end product is the kingdom expressed and expanded and God glorified.
Works
of Jesus - see Lk 4:18,19 and Mt 11:5 i.e. physical, mental, spiritual
heaing/deliverance.
1.2
Key Verses
John
14:12 “ whoever believes in me will
do the works I have been doing.”
Matt
28:19,20 “ go and make
disciples of (or from) all nations……
teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”
1.3
Introduction: Types of Faith
In
its simplest form, faith is responding
to what we hear God saying
“Faith
comes from hearing the word” (Rom
10:17)
Initially
we ‘hear' God's word, (by reading, hearing preaching etc.) are convicted
and converted.
Our
believing and accepting the basic facts of our salvation,
let's call ‘Basic Faith'
As
we grow in Christ, we learn to let God's word guide and direct our lives
and bring change to them.
We
might call this ‘Character Faith' - our character changes
as we conform to God's will.
e.g.
we do not steal, kill, commit adultery (negatives); we do have compassion,
learn patience (positives) etc.
i.e.
whole areas of life are changed – attitudes towards society, relationships,
money, work etc.
But
then we learn that God speaks and we can hear on a daily basis, as the
Holy Spirit nudges us with that quiet, still inner voice. As we respond
to this we might call this ‘Response Faith'
Examples
of ‘response faith' might be,
Almost
inevitably ‘response faith' means being God's instrument to bless others.
PART
TWO: Problems to be Faced
There
are two problems to be faced and overcome:
2.1
Facing Unbelief
A
Culture of Unbelief
The
truth is that many good Evangelical churches have been good at proclaiming
the word but not so good at things they may consider more subjectively,
and therefore they have accepted a culture of unbelief
(yes, it is that!)
They
are good with Basic and Character Faith but very weak when it comes to
Response Faith, i.e. they don't like the thought of ‘hearing God' and
even less like doing the same works of Jesus as seen in say Lk 4:18,19
and Matt 11:4,5 which they often tend to spiritualise, despite the fact
that Jesus clearly ministered into the physical realm with all these things.
In
such a culture of unbelief, in which many of us have grown up, it is almost
impossible to expect to see Jesus do these things, as we see in Mk 6:5
where Jesus could hardly do anything because of the unbelief of the people.
We should also note that such signs and wonders are no guarantee of belief
(see Jn 12:37).
Two
Classic Examples
The
Man with the Shrivelled Hand
In
Mk 3:1- we find Jesus going into a local synagogue where he encounters
a man with a shrivelled hand. It is unlikely that the man had come with
Jesus because Jesus would already have healed him and it is more likely
that he was a local who regularly attended synagogue.
The
main activities of the synagogue were scripture reading/teaching and prayers,
and clearly not to minister to the physical needs of the people. Now see
this: here we have a religious institution that weekly declares the word
of God but fails to do the works of Jesus.
Jesus
comes in and heals the man despite the environment of prevailing unbelief.
How
many people do we have in our congregation who come with problems, difficulties,
aches, pains, illnesses and infirmities, who we fail to touch as Jesus
touched this man?
The
demon-possessed man
In
Mk 1:21 Jesus goes into the local synagogue and is confronted by a demon-possessed
man. Again it is likely that he was able to be in the synagogue without
upset until the Son of God appeared. When Jesus delivered him, the people
were surprised by his authority. Spiritual authority was clearly absent
from this place where the word of God was declared impotently week by
week. In how many churches is this true today?
Steps
to be taken
To
overcome this culture or environment of unbelief we need to do the following:
•
Face and confess our unbelief –
we have not done the works of Jesus (see Jn 14:12) and have rationalised
it and remained ineffective. In some quarters where it is done, it is
usually limited to the leaders and the body of Christ largely remain spectators.
•
Declare our belief –
we need to positively speak out our belief and determination to go along
the path that follows in these notes.
•
Start a Process of Learning –
we need to recognise that we are learners and there will be a process
we laid out above to bring about 'a people who minister to one another
and do the works of Jesus involving signs, wonders and lives transformed
as the kingdom of God is expressed and subsequently enlarged.'
In
case we missed them, we should take careful note of three key words:
This
takes us back to the fact that in its simplest form, faith is responding
to what we hear God saying.
“Faith
comes from hearing the word” (Rom
10:17) and the first part of the learning process is ‘learning to listen'.
However,
before we move on to the learning phase, we also need to face the second
problem, that of the ‘hard man mentality' in many Christians.
2.2
The Hard Man mentality
We
observe this in Jesus' parable of the talents, in the response of the
third servant who said to his master, “I
knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown
and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went
out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.'
(Mt
25:24,25)
This
is particularly prevalent in churches where there is an authoritarian
or legalistic leadership where there are very high standards dictated
from the front and required of any who serve in any form in the church.
It
is also prevalent in individuals whose fathers were similarly authoritarian
or even abusive. In both cases
it is seen in a fear of imperfect achievement i.e. perfectionism. The
fear of failure, or of ‘getting it wrong', kills faith.
The
individual from these situations:
The
person who has grown up in a loving and secure home, and who has experienced
good parenting, knows that:
If
this is good parenting (and it is!) then our loving, heavenly Father is
so much more accepting of our faltering steps and pleased when we make
them.
For
many, the thought of stepping out in faith is a fearful prospect instead
of a delightful adventure that can bless the Father's heart. Constant
encouragement may need to be given.
None
of this should be taken to imply that God will turn a blind eye to blatant
sin and therefore the believer who desires to learn to be used of God
in these ways, will constantly allow the Spirit to check them out and
highlight needs for change. The Lord is always there, waiting to forgive
when there is repentance and empower changes of behaviour when that is
needed.
|