LFM – 2016 Oct 2: Foundational Pillars for Ministry

LFM – 2 October 2016

Defining our mission in line with God’s Vision through Jesus Christ => Luke 4:18-19

• Anointed / Empowered by the Holy Spirit to:
  1. Preach Good News to the poor => Revelation of Jesus as the Son of God – Relationship
  2. Proclaim that captives will be released from sin => Revelation as Saviour / Messiah
  3. Proclaim that the blind will see => Light of the World – spiritual perspective — knowing rights

           4. Proclaim that the oppressed will be set free – knowing rights => Its a spiritual war

5. Living in a time of the Lord’s Favour – Revelation of Jesus as Jehovah — I AM

           ==> Rapha – Healer, Jireh – Provider, Shalom – Peace

 

How did Jesus start off? How should we start off? =>  Luke 3:21-22

1. We need to be baptised in water to symbolise our repentance / changing direction

==> Symbolic Washing away of the old (womb) while being born into the kingdom

2. Prayer => developing a relationship => Jesus prayed & the heavens opened
3. We also need the baptism of Holy Spirit & Fire => Anointing & Power
4. Anointing & Power => Manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit => Tongues, prophecy, healing
5. Ability to hear & know the voice & discern the heart of God

==> The Holy Spirit teaches us & guides us in the things of God

• Not embarrassing Jesus — doing as Jesus would =>Graduating salvation?? — Peter

6. Our life characterised by Peace => God is also well pleased with us.

Foundational Pillars for Ministry

Luke 4:4-13  (NKJV) => Satan Tempts Jesus

4 Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into[a] the wilderness, 2 being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.

3 And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”

4 But Jesus answered him, saying,[b]“It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’”[c]

5 Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him[d] all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.”

8 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan![e] For[f] it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”[g]

9 Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. 10 For it is written:

‘He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you,’11 and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”[h]

12 And Jesus answered and said to him, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ”[i]

13 Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.

Prayer, fasting & Word of God =>Spiritual pillars for ministry

1. PRAYER

• Jesus said the Greatest Commandment => Matthew 22:37-38 (NKJV)

37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’[d] 38 This is the first and great commandment

• Just as man was commanded to love his wife, a component of love is communication / fellowship & interaction with one’s spouse.
• Communicating / fellowship / intimacy / interaction with our creator is the essence of prayer
• Developing a relationship with our creator through various interactions – praise, worship…
• Submitting our lives to God and acknowledging our dependence on Him
• Offering our thanksgiving, praise and worship to God as our Lord and Saviour, Our Alpha & Omega

• God advises us in Jeremiah 29:11-13 (NKJV)

11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

• David, a man after God’s heart advises his son Solomon => 1 Chronicles 28:9 (NKJV)

9 “As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever.

• Seeking and receiving God is what brings us perfect satisfaction in our being => living water of John 4. Nothing else can satisfy us. Psalm 63:1 (AMP) describes it as:

O God, You are my God; with deepest longing I will seek You;

My [a]soul [my life, my very self] thirsts for You, my flesh longs and sighs for You,

In a dry and weary land where there is no water.

Dawa ya kiu ya maisha ==> Yesu 

Jesus is the only one that can quench the thirst of Life

2. FASTING

• Separating ourselves from the things of the world and focusing on God
• Setting one’s mind on spiritual things and ignoring fleshy desires / worldly things
• Enables us to hear God more clearly in spirit => directions & guidance
• Enemy => confusion & interference trying to hinder one from focusing and receiving from God
• Flesh and spirit oppose each other – fasting helps to eliminate the interference of the flesh
• Galatians 5:16-17 (NKJV)

16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

3.  WORD OF GOD

• Equipping ourselves with the knowledge of God
• Moving from just knowing about God to intimately knowing God
• The Word of God is a weapon => Jesus used it to answer back
• Ephesians 6:17 (NKJV)

     And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;

Ministry is a spiritual war of forcefully getting / claiming people out of the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light => Jesus mission

Possibly why more often than not we all have a testimony of how we came into salvation

• Ephesians 6:12 (NKJV) For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age,[c]against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly  

Jesus when encountering a spiritual war was in prayer and fasting led by the Holy Spirit (Word).

• His response to the attack was to use the spiritual sword of the Word ( Spiritual Word or  S-WORD )=> It is written

1. Man shall not live on bread alone, but by every Word of God – vs. 4 => WORD

2. You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only you shall serve – vs. 8 => PRAYER

3. You shall not tempt the Lord your God – vs. 12 => FASTING (restraining desire of the flesh)

Prayer => spiritual communication / interaction & intimacy

Fasting => enables hearing in the spirit

Word of God => our spiritual weapon

For us to be effective in ministry

=> A PRAYING, FASTING, WORD oriented Church & Individuals

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Knowing Jesus and following His example

My young child wants to dance, play, sing, talk, hug…

Ezekiel 22 — A watchman for our own lives

Psalm 91 –  A good example of : Applying the S-Word of God against the enemy