Disciplining the Nations!

Disciplining the Nations!
Jesus’ Final Orders to His Disciples
Matt 28:16 Then the 11 disciples went to Galilee. They went to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him. But some still had their doubts.
18 Then Jesus came to them. He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 So you must go and make disciples of all nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And you can be sure that I am always with you, to the very end.”
Matthew 16:20 (The Voice)
With Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Anointed One, the foundation of the church is laid. In the days ahead, the church will storm the gates of hell and nothing will be able to stop it. No darkness, no doubt, no deception—not even death will be able to stand against it. And Jesus ordered His disciples to keep these teachings secret. Jesus: You must tell no one that I am the Anointed.
I am reading a wonderful book entitled, Turning the World Upside Down, Discipling the Nations with the Seven Mountain Strategy, by Michael Maiden.
In it, he reviews the seven mountains of God, or kingdoms to which we must bring the Lordship, and rulership of Jesus.
These seven mountains are: Family, Church, Business, Government, Education, Arts/Entertainment, and Media.
One of my personal passions is the topic of ‘governmental prayer’, or exercising God’s authority over the nations (ethnos) through faith and authority, in declaring the decrees of the Word of God, and watching God manifest His Word, with signs following.
In Michael’s chapter on the church, he brings several wonderful examples from the Roman Empire. I am going to steal one of them here, as it is too good to not share, but the entire book, is a ‘Must Read’.
On Page 72, we read, ‘The word church in the Greek, is the word ecclesia, which means ‘called out ones’. It can be no coincidence that the Romans used this same word for the group of indigenous people they selected from each conquered province to take to Rome for training. In Rome, the ecclesiasts sat at the feet of Caesar and the Senate to learn the workings and culture of the Roman Empire. After experiencing Roman society and coming to understand the laws and ways of Rome, these members of the ecclesia were returned to their homes to spread Roman culture throughout their provinces.
The ecclesia model is obviously Jesus intention for the Church. His plan is to summon people (ecclesiasts) from the seven mountains of culture. They are to ‘sit at His feet’ through the ministry of apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, and evangelists to learn the power and culture of the Kingdom of Heaven. Then, they are to return to (or find) their positions in the seven mountains of culture, to bring God’s kingdom to their places of influence’
This is a wonderful illustration, as we literally bring heaven to earth, redeeming not only individual people, but tribes and languages, that entire ethnos become transformed, redeemed, with the Word of God, and the atmosphere, or culture of heaven.
Heaven’s culture, is love….
Been thinking about that concept, how first the kingdom of God comes to us, and grows within, then flows without.
Luke 17:21
Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
Seems that the parable of the sower, is our hearts, where the Kingdom of God, grows inside of us, as we grow in the Word of God, and faith, obedience, fruit of the Spirit, and corresponding authority.
Galatians 4:1
King James Version (KJV)
4 Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
We begin as spiritual children, then grow in grace and knowledge of Jesus and His kingdom, and ask we do, He changes our hearts, and turns up the volume and power upon our words.
As He does, and we learn to walk in His authority, we begin to see evil literally stopped when we pray and command it to stop, and heaven’s blessings literally descend upon the earth, as we declare the Word of God, in obedience and timing.
Job 22:28
Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways.
As we are transformed inside, and our mind is renewed, our obedience is perfected we develop:
2 Corinthians 10:6
And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
We learn that apart from Him we can do nothing, but as our kingdom responsibilities increase, so does our corresponding authority, to exercise His authority in our lives, and in the communities (ethnos) or nations where we are called to serve.
This growth will continue, until Jesus comes, and I’m sure, throughout eternity:
Ephesians 4:13-16
New Living Translation (NLT)
13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
Seems the kingdom of God first increases IN us, then as we are transformed, it increases THROUGH us.
Kingdom Inside Increase = Kingdom Outside Increase!
Yes, we must learn of the King and His Kingdom, His royal culture, will, decrees and commandments; but then, we must take what we have learned, back to our own people, in power, authority, love and great wisdom directly from His throne.

There is militancy about this process. To continue in Michaels illustrations of the Roman Empire, there was a saying: “Veni,vidi,vici” which simply translates as “We came, we saw, we conquered!”

This was the heart of Rome, and is the heart of Jesus for His church.
We are to aggressively take the gospel, and His kingdom to the nations of the earth for is it not written:

Luke 19:13
And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.
There is a work to be done, a job to be completed, as we in humility, tears, love, and mercy, seek to articulate the higher precepts, concepts, and culture of heaven, into the cultures to which we have been sent.
I love what one instructor taught in missions school:
‘The job of modern missions, is NOT to bring our Western version of the gospel to unreached people groups as some have suggested, rather, we go to those people, and humbly endeavor to learn their culture, language, traditions, and ways, to discover the ways that God has already visited that people, and use these as entry points to reveal Jesus and the Word of God to them’
This is my heart, and takes much prayer, and study of the not only the letter of the Word of God, but often the spirit and intent of particular passages.
Let us continue to grow in our particular gifts, and grow, go, and flow in the Holy Spirit.
Let’s Pray:

“Father, speak to us today, grow, train, equip, and transform us, deep within. May we be fully obedient in seeking You with our whole heart, during this season of our lives, going into our worlds in obedience to You and Your Word. Holy Spirit, flow through us, in wisdom, teaching, preaching, prayer, and Your authority, that we might be used in this generation to exercise Your authority to declare Your decrees, and see Your signs, wonders, and miracles in our generation. In Your name I pray Lord Jesus, Amen’

You are a Gift!

You are a gift!
Motivational Gifts
Romans 12:6-8
Amplified Bible (AMP)
6 Having gifts (faculties, talents, qualities) that differ according to the grace given us, let us use them: [He whose gift is] prophecy, [let him prophesy] according to the proportion of his faith;
7 [He whose gift is] practical service, let him give himself to serving; he who teaches, to his teaching;
8 He who exhorts (encourages), to his exhortation; he who contributes, let him do it in simplicity and liberality; he who gives aid and superintends, with zeal and singleness of mind; he who does acts of mercy, with genuine cheerfulness and joyful eagerness.

Romans 12:6-8
Authorized (King James) Version (AKJV)
6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; 7 or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; 8 or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.
These are our motivational gifts, the gifts given to each of us at birth, by God.
Back in the days of one of my discipleship processes (There have been four, and this is a new season again), we were required to work through questionnaires to determine our motivational gifts, and then to begin to work on each of them.
As I read through the book, ‘Turn the World Upside Down’, Discipling the Nations with the Seven Mountain Strategy by Micheal Maiden, he brings our a real simple review of these gifts, that I feel impressed to simply post these gifts here, because in these we discover not only why we are created the way we are, but also the areas of life that we are called to serve in.
I believe that we can grow in our gifting and callings, in fact I overheard a senior minister state at a staff meeting one time, in a ministry that is exploding all over the world, ‘If you are on staff here, you gotta grow, or you gotta go!’
Quoted from the book, here is an overview of the motivational gifts:

Prophecy (Percievers) have a natural discernment to see to the heart of an issue or a person’s motives, and the perceiver desires to reveal the truth.
Servants (ministers) are motivated by a desire to help, and they naturally see what needs to be done, expecially to aid others.
Teachers love to do research, study, discover new things, and enjoy communicating their knowledge to others.
Exhorters care for the spiritual needs of others by stimulating, building up, edifying, and cheering up.
Givers are gifted to make money. Money is their friend,giving money excites them, and they are careful with what they have.
Administrators (leaders) can see the bigger picture in a situation, make instant evaluations, and assign steps of action to solve problems.
People with the gift of Mercy are focused on the emotional needs of others, they are driven by compassion, love, mercy, and forgiveness.
While there are three types of gifts mentioned in the New Testament, the motivational gifts listed here, the gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:7-10, and the ascension gifts or leadership gifts that Jesus gave to build the church (five-fold ministry) found in Eph 4:11.
These motivational gifts often determine your life skills, and can determine what vocation in life we are called to, what areas of life to study, focus upon, and to work on developing, and what areas of the church we may be called to serve in.
There are various surveys that can help us discover what our gifts are, and areas we might focus in, I simply googled one up here: http://www.gifttest.org/survey.html
Knowing our gifts and areas of strength, and in recognizing those in others, can help us focus on what we are specifically created to do in this life, and enable us to recognize strong gifts operating in others, so that we can get along with others without completion, or misunderstanding.
If you have never done this, or done this with your congregation, business, or leadership team, results can be really helpful in team building, avoiding the old ‘trying to jam a square peg in a round hole’ problem.
Yet, as I was thinking about this, the Lord brought to my remembrance, a season of our live when we pioneered our first church.
We were asked for quarterly financial reports from our board members, and didn’t have a clue how to produce them.
Within a year, the administration of our ministry was a mess!
I remember the agony of wanting to do right, but not having a clue how!
The board eventually resigned (in hindsight, I can’t say I really blame them!), and we appointed two new board members.
Chris and Mary Fox served, and they did a missions trip up to our fledgling ministry, and stayed at our house with us. They were so kind, loving, encouraging, during a very, very difficult season in our life.
One morning after morning prayer, sister Mary said to me: ‘pastor Chris, may I ask you a question?’
‘Sure.’ I answered, ‘Anything!’
We had shown them our office, it’s piles of papers, and shared our frustration in our inability to manage well.
She gently asked: ‘Do you believe that God has called you here?’
Emphatically, I said , ‘Yes!’
Then she asked, ‘Do you believe you are called to be the senior pastor of this church?’
Again, I wearily smiled, ‘Yes, I do, because there sure doesn’t seem to be anyone else available to do it.’
She went on, ‘Well, I believe God called you here too. Now, if God called you here, then He must have given to you either a direct gift of administration, to manage this ministry, or sent someone to do it for you, can you not agree?’
I had never thought of it that way before, so I began to think about who in the congregation might be able to administrate the office work. I thought of a couple of competent people, but knew they were far too busy in their careers. I was stymied, I could not see an immediate solution.
She gently asked: ‘I believe that if God called you here, and this ministry needs administration, that that gift must be inside of you, waiting to be activated. Here is what I would like you to do: write this down: ‘By faith, I have a powerful gift of administration, and the administration of this ministry is done with excellence, ease, accuracy, and I am well able to set everything decently in order in every area of the church. Amen’
I wrote it down. So simple, yet so profound. Me, the faith preacher, had never thought of using my faith on the most obvious need in my life, clean administration.
It was clearly a word from the Lord, and I began to confess it, pray it, proclaim it, and I knew God heard and was going to do something.
One morning, during morning devotions, I saw it!
I scribbled down a set of seven office procedures that served us well for the next four years of our service there, and that when done, every Monday, made the administration a breeze, simple, and totally accurate and clean.
I called Revenue Canada at that time to ensure that what I proposed was correct and legal, and one of the senior tax auditors actually came out to the little community center where we met laughing. He asked ‘I have never received a call like this in 20 years! Are you asking me to audit your ministry?’ I said honestly: ‘Sir, if that is what it takes to ensure that our administration and handling of finances is correct and above board, then yes.” He probably still chuckles over it. Yet, he showed us how to correctly document everything so that tax returns and ministry submissions to the government we easy.
In fact, a couple of years later, a disgruntled pastor (used to be when you started a new church in a community, the devil would send principalities and powers to oppose the work, now he sends pastors! LOL!) thought to have our ministry audited by Revenue Canada (the Canadian equivalent of the IRS), and because we had sent a thank you into Peter for helping us, I still had his card, and called him up and asked him what to do.
He said, ‘Who sent you the letter?’
I read him the name off the bottom, and he chuckled again, and said: ‘They work for me. Fax me the letter, and that is the last you will ever hear from us.’
As honest ministers, we have favor, and friends in high, high places!
Let’s pray:
‘Father, please reveal to each of us, our motivational gifts, and the gifts of those You have called us to work with. Please help us to continue to develop our gifts, to continue to grow, and become all You would have us to become, in Your name I pray Lord Jesus, Amen.’