Well, this is my first post since May 21st!
I’m glad to be back from Nagaland. I’ve spent the last two days just allowing my body to catch up from all the travel. One hundred years ago, travelling to India would have taken weeks and weeks! And to think that, including layovers, it took me just 35 hours to get back from a 10,000 mile trip is incredible, from the vantage point of history!
I spoke every session of the last week of Spirit of Faith’s Bible Schools school year. That is, I spoke five hours a day for five days. That is a lot of material to present; a lot of study, prep, and prayer, and a lot of mental, emotional, and spiritual energy! So, I’ve taken a break to recoup and restore my energy; mentally, emotionally, spiritually! Physically, I’ve taken time to exercise, which for me at least, renews my energy reserves. If you reap what you sow, then I sow some exercise to reap some physical strength.
I taught on the subjects of The Ministry Offices; The Eternal Rewards Available to Believers; Faithfulness, The Key to Fruitful Ministry; The Practical Aspects of the Minister’s Life.
I taught on the ministry of the Apostle, the Prophet, the Evangelist, the Pastor, and the Teacher. I also addressed the other seven ministry of grace places where God uses believers in the body of Christ.
On Tuesday, I taught on the difference between the Great White Throne Judgment for unbelievers only, and the Judgment (rewards) Seat of Christ for believers only. I taught about the six rewards available to believers that are accrued as we live life everyday. I also spoke about the five crowns that are available as rewards for Christian living that are revealed in the New Testament.
On Wednesday, I taught about the importance of faithfulness, and how God looks for faithfulness as a means of promoting us into the place He has for us in the body of Christ.
On Wednesday evening, Thursday and Friday I taught on practical subjects of: the call of God; the importance of daily devotions in the life of a minister; the importance of having a effective personal prayer life; the importance of rest and personal time; the order of personal priorities in our lives; how to organize your personal reading and devotions to glean for future ministry; the importance of marriage and children and how to keep your priorities correct with your family. I also taught about moral integrity and how to keep yourself from falling into sin.
Beginning Wednesday night and continuing through Saturday night, I held a leadership conference for the students, past graduates, and ministry workers at the various Spirit of Faith Campuses there in Nagaland. In the leadership conference, I spoke on the subject of Being a Relational Leader. I talked about the need for us to humble ourselves before God; the need for every believer to have a spiritual Copernicus revolution, where we take ourselves from the center of our world, and allow Jesus to really be the reason and motivation for how and what we do each day as leaders.
So many Christians today, including leaders, live to please themselves at the expense of others! Jesus urges us in every gospel to take up our cross and follow Him. Our cross is where we choose His plans and will as revealed in His Word over our plans and will. Our cross is also the place where we say no to the appetites and desires of the flesh!
In the leadership conference, I also addressed the need for us as leaders to allow God to reveal to us the things that we don’t realize about ourselves that hurt other people. I addressed the need to allow God to reveal to us wrong thinking in our personal belief system, and I talked about the need to go of 1) bitter root strongholds of thought that occurs from past hurts and life challenges and 2) bitter root expectations that occur when we fail to let go of hurts and offenses of the past (see Hebrews 12:15).
I also addressed the need for us a believers and leaders to open up to the Father’s deep love for us and talked about how to practically apply His love to daily living.
Sunday morning we had a graduation for the 2015 class of Spirit of Faith Bible School. I urged the students and attendees to expect for God to use us in the power of the Holy Spirit to confront the spirit of antiChrist that is at work in these last days. We should expect the Holy Spirit to use us in the last days move of the Spirit mentioned by the prophet Joel in Joel 2:28-32. We should be encouraged by the Holy Spirit as persecution increases and God uses us for His glory and His purposes. I finally charged the students with Paul’s final words to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:1-6.
I’m looking forward to reconnecting with Victory Church on Sunday! I’m ready to preach!!
0 comments:
Post a Comment