In This Issue
Featured Article - Finding Your Place
Finding Your Place
How do you find your place in ministry? A lot of people truly want to know!
Perhaps you are wondering, too! The most important thing is not to try to figure it out! You start right where you are. Do not take off to Bible School, or go buy a tent, or a bus. Do not get in a panic mode! God knows what He is doing. He does not mind telling you, if you take a little time to ask.
Too many times people are so preoccupied with finding out what their calling is that they totally miss God. We do not need to figure it out. We need to live it from the inside out. Your purpose and gifting in life will grow up and produce the call of God in your life.
If you have a gift of exhortation, you will always be counseling someone. The gift will find a place for you. If you have a gift of giving, look for ways to give. You will give of your time, your talent, and your ability. You will find a need, and you will meet the need.
Think about what comes natural to you in everyday life. That is your gift!
God has a way of proving us before promoting us. He wants to know that He can depend on us. He wants to see faithfulness in our lives.
So, what are the steps to finding your place in the ministry?
- Go before the Lord and minister to Him. If you do not spend any time with Him, how do you know what He wants you to do? We cannot go and do what we see someone else doing and expect it to be right for us. It has to be by the appointment of God, not man.
- Get built up in the Word. When you go to church, you are being equipped; you are being trained; you are being anointed by the Word of God. You have allowed God to be your first priority when you get up on Sunday morning and go to church.
- Go out and begin to minister to others. Go out full of the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit and begin to minister God's life to other people. If Jesus has healed you, go tell somebody. Your gift will make a place for you.
You must prepare yourself for your ministry. You do not go from the pulpit to the prayer closet; you go from the prayer closet to the pulpit. It starts in there. God talks to you, fills you up, begins to anoint and equip you in there, so that you can come out and be used by Him.
What is ministry? Ministry is communication.
There are three ways to minister.
- You minister by the Word. It is always better to use His Word rather than yours!
- You minister by your actions (good character in action).
- You minister by the Spirit. God is a spirit, and you are a spirit.
Minister by His Spirit that is within you. Why? Because, "Greater is He that is within me than he that is in the world." His Spirit that is in you is greater than any in the world!
So start your ministry first of all by ministering unto God. Go to your prayer closet and find your special place that God has called you to. Then, come out with the anointing of God to fulfill it. May God's richest blessings be yours!
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Prophetic Countdown - Sex in the City of God
Sex & the City of God
How do we respond to a corrupted culture?
Provocative Question! (Article by Mark Buchanan ~ Christianity Today) http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2006/001/1.38.html
How can the church be a counterculture for the common good? Jesus said that "All have come short of the Glory of God". It is not just about sin in the city. It is about sin in us! We have a sinful nature. The nature, the stuff we are made of, the bottom line of our being, that is what must change! How does that happen?
John 3:3 In reply, Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."The Good News is We have been made right with God. We have been forgiven of our sins. We have been given the ability to see the kingdon of heaven and the right to be a citizen of heaven. We have become Ambassadors with a great message! You must be born again! God's Spirit changes your spirit.
Jesus says you can not see -- you don't have eyes to see it until you have been born again. What is Born Again?
John 3:4 "How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"
John 3:5 -8 Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
Jesus was trying to help Nicodemus see that being born physically into this world (of water) was the only way to become a human and a resident of earth. But to become a resident of heaven you have to be born a second time! Born of the Spirit!
John 3:13-15 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven--the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Our nature has to change! When we help other people learn how to be born again we help them change their nature.
2 Cor 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is (Born Again) in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
2 Cor 5:18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
If we have been born again then we have a ministry!
2 Cor 5:19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
If we have been born agin then we have a message!
2 Cor 5:20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.
We are Ambassadors!
2 Cor 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
We are made right with God. There has been a nature change in us. We live in this world, but we are now residents of heaven! We have been born of the Spirit of God! Born Again!
How do we respond to a corrupted culture? We help them see! We tell them how to be born again!Jesus is coming soon! We are His Ambassadors!
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Decision One - Heaven!
Heaven! In today's world lots of people think of it as "up there, somewhere!" In tomorrow's world lots of people are going to think, "What was I thinking?" We need to help them think now! "Are you born again?"
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Trips & Tips
One of the greatest things about going on a mission trip is the development of new friends. Another is locking in memories of being with old friends while doing something great together. Great memories are a reward for years to come. Kodak moments can help you hold on to some of those great moments. Be sure to bring your camera, and while you are there, be sure to use it!
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